In a stirring conclusion where Buzz Aldrin and his partner Ashly Costa faced off in the bottom two against Bachelor Jake Pavelka and Chelsie Hightower, Dancing with the Stars ended up booting the meandering moonwalker. While his departure was inevitable, we mourn the possibilities left unexplored -- and namely, these three all-too-perfect Aldrin choreography themes. Get your seltzer ready!
Well, kind of. Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas told EW that a film based on the UPN detective series has not been ruled out, just put on hold temporarily at Warner Bros. But Thomas did concede that he has a limited window to push the film forward: "There is a bit of a ticking clock [because] Kristen Bell does continue to age...But frankly, I think Veronica Mars as a 30-year-old noir detective at some point in the future would still be interesting to me." Better get cracking -- the actress turns 30 this summer. [EW]
If you've been faithfully tuning into NBC's family drama Parenthood each week, waiting for confirmation that your primetime tastes run racy, consider the title of last night's episode "The Big 'O'" your sign from above. The slang term denoted that huge, orgasm-related topics would be covered as best they could under network restrictions. And as usual, Parenthood kinda delivered on those moderate expectations. After the jump, Movieline revisits each edgy issue tackled, including Monica Potter's O-face.
Visitor High Commander Anna might be a charming diplomat by day and a conspiring, human-skin-coated reptile by night in ABC's V, but we're beginning to realize she's also sort of a modern-day Confucius, offering up such applicable gems as "deliver a villain and a hero will present itself." Click through to read Anna's maxim from Pound of Flesh that might as well fill your fortune cookie.
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After last night's brilliant showing by Ed Asner on Chelsea Lately, Movieline hereby elects the 80-year-old Up star to promote all future Pixar projects on the late night circuit. Click through to rate Lou Grant's sexy talk for yourself and catch the other P.M. highlights you missed while throwing darts at a photo of your former bandleader.
[By clicking through, you are agreeing that Ed Asner (and not Movieline) is to blame for ruining all future screenings of Up.]
· Re-rev your engines: TLC has announced an extension of its successful American Chopper reality series, which ran six months until its stars, father-son motorcycle designers, Paul Teutul Sr. and Paul Teutul Jr., parted ways in a nasty legal dispute. The new project, American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior will pit the estranged Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. in competing bike shops and will premiere in August. Series executive producer Christo Doyle is not sure how he will divide each episode but revealed to the New York Post that the Teutuls' estrangement has been difficult for him too: "This is a very bitter situation that runs really deep -- at times I feel I'm a family therapist and not a producer." [NYP]
Maura Tierney returns to television, Merlotte hires a new waitress, and more TV Bites after the jump.
Game shows have a long, checkered past of shoving contestants down holes, under water, and into pits, but ABC's newest pickup adds to that list with great gusto: In Downfall, contestants who miss trivia questions may have to fall off a skyscraper, perhaps with the aid of a bungee cord. (Shame on Donald Trump for not thinking of this brand promotion first.) In honor of the new show, let's revisit four not-so-classic game shows where contestants plunged into despair and often took our tolerance with them.
Nielsen announced today that for the first time in either show's history, Dancing With the Stars' ratings last week vanquished those of both the Tuesday and Wednesday episodes of American Idol. It wasn't especially close either: An estimated 23 million people watched DWTS a week ago, compared to a respective 21.8 million and 20.5 million viewers tuning into Idol. A rep for Nielsen attributed the aberration to "the Gosselin factor." Hmm. Happy, Simon? [AP via Yahoo!]
For today's "Funny People"-themed episode of Oprah, the media empress wrangled three NBC comedians into her studio to make her audience laugh. Tina Fey and Steve Carell entertained the studio by talking about licking stripper poles and humping stages on the set of Date Night (which Oprah endorsed as "laugh-out-loud funny!"). Then the next comedian, Tracy Morgan, took the stage. Only instead of just sharing some knee slappers, the 30 Rock star got gritty when Oprah revealed a school picture of Morgan at the age of six. "Awwwww," the studio audience cooed. "Yeah," responded Morgan, "that's the year my dad left me!" And that was only first bit of knowledge dropped on audience members -- the rest, including the subject that made Morgan tear up instantly, after the jump.
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After the Late Night Wars toppled Conan O'Brien from The Tonight Show and reinstalled Jay Leno in his place, it seemed as though the battle lines had been drawn: on one side, there was Team Coco, on the other, Team Leno, and never the twain should meet. That's what makes the news we're about to reveal all the more surprising.
Gabourey Sidibe has already had her big break with this year's Oscar-nominated film Precious and now it looks like her mother, Alice Tan Ridley, is getting her own shot at fame with an upcoming appearance on NBC's competition show, America's Got Talent. Ridley, a former teacher who has been earning an income by dancing in a New York subway the past few years, confirmed the April booking to Radar: "It's a big break for me and I would like to follow in Susan Boyle's footsteps and become a star in my own right." [Radar]
Yesterday brought us a bombshell lawsuit filed by Nicollette Sheridan against Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry, alleging that she was wrongfully fired from the show in the wake of a physical assault by Cherry. In the wake of any additional news today, I decided to examine the lawsuit in greater depth, and I'm surprised that one of Sheridan's charges -- unlawful discrimination based on sexual orientation -- isn't attracting greater attention.
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Last time we saw Tara, she was cheering up thanks to an Air Supply jam session in her neighbor's suicide house. She had not told her family that Buck had been hijacking her body to woo a sweet bartender named Pammy (Joey Lauren Adams), hoping her male alter would recede back into her subconscious. But as we learned in last night's episode, "The Truth Hurts," Pammy and Buck are not going away anytime soon, and if anyone tries to get between them, Buck, the hardened Vietnam vet who shows his affection by cutting his lady's toenails and replacing her water jug, will throw down with anyone, including Tara. After the jump, Movieline assesses the damage from last night's match.
Another week, another round of Pussycat Dolls and astronauts powerhumping at the cuticles of America's voting/texting/judging fingers. In this go-around, the judges declared a new scoring champion while assuring us that Buzz Aldrin is never going to beat Olympic figure-skaters in the elegance department. Because he's a lazy jackass.
Fox will spin-off its popular medical drama House, according to Michael Ausiello, into a miniseries centering on Nurse Jeffrey, played by Patrick Price. The catch is that the show, titled Nurse Jeffrey will only be available for iPhone users who subscribe to the show's free app, inHOUSE. Jeffrey will be added to the app on May 24 and will offer new "appisodes" every Monday during the summer while House is on hiatus. [EW]
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