NBC rewarded the 40% of viewers that had not already bailed on The Jay Leno Show during its first week of awkward video interviews, recycled headlines and excruciatingly long car wash sketches with the first Green Car Challenge on Friday night. With palpable anticipation in the air, Leno triumphantly marched guest Drew Barrymore and the studio audience down to the racetrack, where he placed a helmet on Barrymore's head, buckled her into her Ford Focus and then -- tortured bystanders with an agonizing Whip It/Leno Show cross-promotion.
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While Movieline is divided regarding the quality of this year's Emmys, I found myself getting nostalgic during last night's ceremony for a strange time when America Ferrera was nominated for something and a big 30 Rock win was relatively unexpected. Come with us, in our magical Katherine Heigl love parade, to the little-watched, underrated Emmy ceremony of 2007.
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The Circle of Instantly-Minted-Pop-Superstar Life renewed itself once again over the weekend when Ethan Boroian -- a 19-year-old Armenian adonis from the suburbs of Chicago, currently studying in Surry, England -- waltzed into Simon Cowell talent competition The X Factor (different from the Idol franchise in that it's a search for telegenic singers with unmistakable star quality, as opposed to a search for star-quality-having pop stars with unmistakably great voices), and promptly proceeded to blow away the judges, the country and the entire world.
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The 61st annual Primetime Emmy Awards were handed out Sunday night to pretty much the usual suspects. Sure, our otherwise well-oiled ML Predictor 3000 machine experienced a few surprise hiccups, but nothing we couldn't tweak on the fly in preparation for the evening's big wins for Best Drama Mad Men and Best Comedy 30 Rock. And I don't know if any modern technology could have predicted just how good Neil Patrick Harris would be as the show's host. More winners and reflections after the jump.
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Two more days until you can start coming up with creative ways to complain about the abbreviated speeches for Emmy categories you don't really care about. To see Movieline's picks for best comedy series and best drama series (and the discussions between Louis and I that led up to them), join us after the jump.
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Dennis Hopper returns to premium cable tonight to douse the second season of Crash with some much-needed crazy. As the freaky music producer who was not part of Paul Haggis's film (but would have improved it), Hopper's character navigates L.A.'s racial war-torn streets from the back of his limousine, while engaging his private parts in heated conversations. Although Hopper will be absent from this weekend's Emmy ceremony, we would like to begin his campaign for next season's award now.
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Imagine if Rupert Murdoch could not only run for president of the United States, and not only win, but also govern his lowbrow media fiefdoms via an army of stooge-proxies while occupying the Oval Office. Transplant that cultural drama to Italy, and you've got the staggering Videocracy, director Erik Gandini's documentary about Silvio Berlusconi's three-decade climb from ribald quiz-show producer to Italian Prime Minister. Videocracy doesn't address that history so much as it maps Berlusconi's TV empire, a wasteland teeming with half-naked showgirls, would-be reality stars, and supported by a population in which the image is more than just king -- it is God.
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Oh, Facebook. Always providing ample opportunity for racist diatribes from our favorite 90s PBS stars. Never change.
Zoe Costello, one of the cast members from PBS' '90s reboot of the instructional children's show Zoom, apparently doesn't like it when nostalgic superfans write on her Facebook wall and ask if she's "still allergic to Latex." Costello, who regularly sat out from balloon-utilizing team games on the show, exploded at two fans over their childish obsessions. Oh, and also their skin color. Watch this NYU-educated child star combust after the jump.
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Stephanie Savage is responsible for bringing us two of the most popular coming-of age series in the past decade, The O.C. and Gossip Girl. Set on the opposite coast as its Californian predecessor, Gossip Girl similarly navigates the social strata of its wealthy, close-knit neighborhood while its characters fumble over each romantic endeavor and pitfall of the privileged in their paths toward adulthood. On the heels of Gossip Girl's third season premiere last week, we spoke to co-creator Savage about keeping the Upper East Siders relatable for future generations, their impending transition to college and the provocative first season scene that needed to be reshot.
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The producers of Project Runway were, like us, considering suicide at the start of Episode Five. Their complicated reasons: 1) The season sucked; 2) Michael Kors and Nina Garcia were still M.I.A., with rumors circulating that they were just playing Skee Ball at Dave & Busters and watching Diane von Furstenberg win a toaster using only her free-throw skills; 3) No contestant stood out. No one was interesting. While not all of those problems were solved this week, at least two saw happy turnarounds. Polish your pinstripes, dandies! This episode was excellent!
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So how did NBC fare with their Thursday night comedy block? Mixed results: The Jay Leno Show continues to stumble, pulling in a 2.7/8 and 8.5 million viewers, or about 10 million fewer than checked out the premiere. More people watched a rerun of CBS' The Mentalist. Community (our review here) had the highest retention of any new show to follow The Office -- 3.7/10. SNL Weekend Update and Parks a& Recreation both tanked, with a 2.0/7 and 2.1/6. Season 19 (!) of CBS's Survivor got a 3.6/11 and 11.5 million viewers, though that could steadily rise as America catches on to Russell Hantz, whom industry-watchers claim has an "amazing sociopath Q-rating. He's watercooler-worthy!" But the surprise winner of the night? Fox, with healthy debuts for Bones and Fringe. [The Wrap]
Jonathan Ames created his short-essay and subsequent HBO series Bored To Death on an admittedly self-indulgent whim: to fulfill his fantasy of moonlighting as a Raymond Chandler-esque detective. The series debuts this Sunday and stars Jason Schwartzman as Jonathan Ames's not-even-veiled surrogate who traverses the Brooklyn borough for clues in minimal stakes, Craigslist-enlisted mysteries. The pilot is well-executed and Schwartzman plays what he plays best - a neurotic hipster simultaneously verging on self-discovery and breakdown - but you can't help but curse Jonathan Ames for failing to dream up intrigue, pressure or even a few jokes for his premium cable brand of wish fulfillment.
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30 Rock often likes to feature fictional movies, but the one they've got coming up this season is a little dicier than Jenna Maroney's The Rural Juror. It's a porn parody of its own characters, modeled after porn company New Sensation's recent release 30 Rock: A XXX Parody. During my trip to the New Sensations studio (where I ogled the filming of a naughty Cheers parody), production manager "Wicked Sister" confirmed exclusively to Movieline that Tina Fey had reached out to the company to use its actors as part of its porn parody of their porn parody. Hear about 30 Rock's brush with the world of hardcore after the jump.
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We're three days and one rib-tickling episode of NBC's Community away from the Emmys! It's during this time that Movieline's TV writers will become the towering intellects of high society, bursting with trenchant commentary like, "Tina Fey, TOUCH US" and "Jon Hamm is a HOTTIE-PA-TOTTIE. He can pull a corporate takeover whenever he wants... on our ass!!" Oh, what a cloudy day. Oh, it's raining Pulitzers.
We already tackled the supporting cast nominees yesterday. Now we investigate the biggest names of the bunch, ranging from a paternal psychiatrist who counsels multiple personalities to a maternal suburbanite who has multiple personalities. Our picks after the jump!
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With all of the buzz about Saturday Night Live sending its elder and phat-ter female cast members to the glue factory, we forgot about SNL's resident nag, Darrell Hammond. USA Today reports that the Hammond, best known for his Bill Clinton and Sean Connery impressions, is very close to negotiating a 14th season at Studio 8H. Lorne Michaels defended his sketch Clydesdale by saying, "We're under some budget pressure...but we feel Darrell's not done yet." Who should we expect next - Chris Parnell? [USA Today]
