Results tagged “ifc”

Weekend Edition The world watches an empty balloon that could be part of a stunt to get a reality show, hmmm, that makes us think that this particularly family could easily head down the "Jon & Kate Plus 8" route - and whoops, TLC is now suing Jon Gosselin. Unless there is some kind of massive intervention, nothing will end well for anyone in that family.

At the premiere of IFC's "Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut)" at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City on October 15th LAist's TV Junkie met all the remaining Pythons other than Eric Idle: Terry Jones, Carol Cleveland, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, and John Cleese. They keep saying that the friendliest Python is Michael Palin but that was impossible to tell as they were all so very kind and patient standing outside in the rain in 40 degree weather (poor Carol Cleveland!).

Some notes on morning programming as a couple new shows have started up fairly recently: Al Roker is a really busy guy, not only is he all over the "Today Show" on NBC but he also feels that he needs to do even more forecasting over at The Weather Channel with "Wake Up With Al" which airs at 3am and 7am. Roker usually (somehow) has a celebrity guest in the studio with him at these ungodly hours.

October is Monty Python month over at IFC, check out these items on their schedule: Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's cut): New Six-Part IFC original docu-series on Python legacy airs October 18-23 @ 9:00pm. We've watched this and it is excellent and should not be missed by anyone who remotely considers themselves to be a Python fan. We will be at the US premiere of the documentary next week and will ask you for your questions for the Monty Python posse.

Shark Week!! The incredible comedian Louis C.K. will have a recurring role on NBC's "Parks and Recreation" starting with the second episode airing this Fall. This makes the season a must-watch! --- ABC's "At the Movies" is dumping their Benjamins in order to get hosts with journalistic pedigrees back on the show. Co-hosts Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz were regarded as lightweights in a glitzed up version of the long-running series.

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

The TV Junkie Plan: "Better Off Ted", "Lost" (maybe), "MythBusters" (if not "Lost"), "South Park", "Reno 911!", Letterman, Fallon.

The TV Junkie Plan: "Deadliest Catch", "Out of the Wild", "Modern Toss", Letterman, Fallon.

We know it's a couple days away but we couldn't help talk up this Thursday night's NBC lineup: "The Office" will be back with 2 brand new episodes at 8pm and 9pm with the series premiere of Amy Poehler's highly anticipated "Parks and Recreation" sandwiched in between the two at 8:30pm. Check out the website of Pawnee, Indiana, the location of "Parks and Recreation" and of course the video snippets.

Last week NPR did a segment on tonight's "Nova" which even sounded cool - check out the photos, the video footage will be even more amazing, if not terrifying, as we have more proof of climate change (PBS @ 8pm).

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.

Starting tonight at 11pm, IFC will begin airing "Modern Toss", an animated series that is the creation of British journalists Mick Bunnage and Jon Link. "Modern Toss" was initially a print comic and website experiment that leaped to TV via UK Channel 4 and now the US finally gets to enjoy it.

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.

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.

More post-Super Bowl hype: Nielsen says 95 million watched, NBC says 148 million watched, and Tuscon Comcast subscribers got 30 seconds of porn during the Super Bowl (that's so wrong in so many ways, if you're going to prank me with porn, you'd better provide more than 30 seconds of it).

NY Times, the paper of record, says that Tivo has struck a deal with DirecTV so that subscribers will be able to record programs in HD on a new recorder made by Tivo. Other than the coolness factor, what should be noted is that Tivo will now be the recorder of choice for DirectTV, Comcast, and Cox - and people were saying Tivo was gonna disappear.

Networked DVRs? Yesterday a US Circuit Court made a decision in Cablevision's favor that would allow them to store programming on a networked DVR thus allowing customers who do not have DVRs in their houses, to access the programming at their convenience through their existing set top boxes. Does this mean that advertisers will get short shrift with more people being able to FFWD through commercials? They will probably just get tapped again to pay for targeted ads on the broadcast from the DVR to the home.

How dope was it that Jack was listening to the Pixies on the "Lost" season finale last night?

Kind of a weak selection until you get to Sunday evening. HBO has been pushing Recount on all the talk shows and some Democrats have been howling about it because we are in the middle of what could be yet another tightly contested election. Let's think about this for a second, would such activists for the Democratic party, like Kevin Spacey, Ed Begley Jr., Laura Dern, John Hurt, etc. participate in a piece of work that would help dash Obama's (let's face it) White House aspirations? It's the TV Junkie Pick O' The Weekend.

Last week we noted that the Dish Network has slowed with regards to new subscribers and now Dish has inked a deal with NBC Universal to present interactive ads to viewers. This could potentially bring them a bit more revenue to make up for the slackening subscribership by increasing the value of ads sold. You may have seen these ads if you have a Tivo - these enhanced ads prompt the viewer to click a button on their remote in order to get more info about a product or promotion. No word yet on the market value of this intrusion into the viewerspace.

Great story on NPR this morning about the failure of BET to provide decent programming for the community it originally targeted (and secured funds from, hat in hand).

Release Date: May 6th, 2008

Hope everyone had a great weekend with or without your TVs. Not much industry stuff of note today other than Variety pounding on the drums for the SAG contracts to move towards resolution. The two parties have met 17 times so far and still the June 30th date gets closer. Can you imagine meeting 17 times with someone and not having reached some kind of compromise?

The LA Times has a write-up on the demise of local public Channel 36. Somehow the City of LA can't/won't come up with a measly $500k to keep local broadcast of "school sport events, public policy talks, and long-distance for-credit college classes". While it's true that there is another city-funded public channel (#35) that one seems to be a megaphone for whichever politicians are in office. Surely the megalopolis of LA is big enough to support two public channels.

This weekend it's all about BBC America's programming with new seasons of "Robin Hood", "The Graham Norton Show", and "Wire In The Blood". I've seen previews of "Robin Hood" and it's a more than worthy replacement for "Torchwood" whose season (dramatically) ended last Saturday with the (supposed) deaths of at least two main characters. Of course, you'll have to be able to emotionally handle the incredible switch from science fiction to fantasy in order to enjoy "Robin Hood" but just give it a try. [Don't forget the finale of "Tracey Ullman's State of the Union" on Sunday @ 10:00pm on Showtime].

New York City may be all the way across the country, but if Rupert Murdoch gets his way there you can bet he will cast his gaze upon all other major metropolitan areas: the New York Times reports that Murdoch wants to obtain a permanent FCC waiver to acquire two TV NYC stations in addition to his three newspapers and radio assets. Will this be a last hurrah while the friendly Bush Administration still controls the FCC or will a waiver set a new standard for consolidation (and thus, more limited choice)? While Murdoch's News Corp. is based in NYC, it doesn't mean that he doesn't exert considerable influence in the West. Can you imagine LA as an "all FOX all the time" market?

MTV's "The Real World" returns for its 20th season which is scary because I remember the premiere of this show back in 1992. My roommates and I, and our significant others (or not) would get together and watch the show which seemed scarily innovative at the time - _anything_ could happen! From being an innovator in reality programming to just another in a field of crowded participants, another season of "The Real World" seems like beating a dead horse. Now that "Big Brother" owns this genre it makes one wonder if/when MTV will ever get back to some actual music programming. Maybe Los Angelinos will be compelled to watch some of this because it's based in Hollywood for this round.

Comedy Central has started to establish some control over Wednesday nights. What's funny is that I started to go back to them on Wednesdays because of Lewis Black's excellent show "Root Of All Evil" (anyone catch him on Conan last week? He was great) and now I'm finding myself re-engaging with "South Park" but I'm sure that program directors at Comedy Central were planning for the flow to happen the other way. Whatever, it's working on me. "Lewis Black's Root Of All Evil" is the TV Junkie Pick tonight and not coincidentally because the incredible Patton Oswalt is on the show as one of the comedian-debaters seeking to prove whether Paris Hilton (or the very idea of her) is more evil than Dick Cheney.

Did anyone see the plastic surgery disaster that is Renee Zellweger on Letterman last night? The skin was stretched so hard over her face I thought her skull was going to pop out. OK so maybe it isn't plastic surgery, Botox anyone? What is wrong with her?? Tracey Ullman has her dead on in "State of the Union".

OK so the Oscars are this weekend. Even though the writers' strike is over, the prediction is that this will be a ho-hum (excuse me?) Oscars. First of all, the majority of the films presented for consideration are real downers, secondly, because of the strike, many potential presenters thought that the awards ceremony would be canceled or drastically cut back so they made other plans and are now not available to present at the show. I'm sure they will have enough presenters but perhaps there won't be as many "mega-stars", thus leaving room for more indie-types.