ABC's summer animation series The Goode Family should be funnier than it is. America is in a liberal mood these days, and the moral excesses of the left-wing are low-hanging fruit for right-wing pundits. If Rush Limbaugh can entertain millions with harsh commentary about Democrats, then a group of seasoned Hollywood writers should be able to do the same thing. Still, it's Friday, and you'll be midway through a sixer by the time the show comes on.
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In order to reinvigorate a turgid, audience-shedding Emmys telecast, the TV Academy has announced a controversial decision to pre-tape the presentation of 8 of the ceremony's 28 awards (changes which are expected to disproportionately affect writers, directors, and cable networks) prior to the live show and run edited footage of these presentations during the live show, hoping to reclaim 12 to 15 precious moments of primetime for the networks who so selflessly donate their resources to the celebration of television's greatest talents. If all goes according to the Academy's plan, the show's ratings, lately in freefall, will surge, and the broadcast networks will wrest back some of the spotlight from basic-cable competitors who have too long been dominating the Emmys due to an unfair advantage in "quality" and "dedication to storytelling."
Confused about how this radical change to the show will play out? Movieline is here to show you what to expect when you half-heartedly flip over to CBS on the evening of Sept. 20th, hoping to get a glimpse of nominee Jon Hamm's jawline before quickly returning to your favorite multiple-birth-related docudrama on TLC.
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Larry David wasn't the only comedian trying to elicit halfhearted chuckles from the ultra-serious TCA crowd yesterday (how you can be so lifeless when there's a well-stocked hors d'oeuvre bar five yards away, I have no idea). Robin Williams took the stage to promote his upcoming comedy special Robin Williams: Weapons of Self Destruction, which has yet to be written or taped. While providing a few actual insights into his life, most of Williams' Q&A was spent using the Langham Hotel's Huntington Ballroom as if it was Pittsburgh's Funny Bone, trying out new material with mixed results. Your scorecard, Mr. Williams.
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Yesterday was HBO day at the Television Critics Association press tour and Larry David was a one-man show, whining and dining critics with new details about the upcoming seventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. The panel began with a season preview (in which Larry viciously attacks a swan, fights Rosie O'Donnell over a restaurant bill, struggles to make out with a woman in a wheelchair and plays BrickBreaker on the beach while a nearby girl screams that she is drowning) and quickly escalated into discussions of the secret Seinfeld arc and Rosie O'Donnell's brute strength.
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In an attempt to juice up the exiled-to-Friday fourth season of Ugly Betty, ABC has instituted changes that could throw a wrench into the works of every entertainment news reporter who loves to crow, "America Ferrera was anything BUT ugly on the red carpet last night!" That's right, folks: Betty's getting pretty! Exactly what should we expect from this television makeover?
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There might be fictional entertainment (e.g. Burn Notice) on the cable channels, but we'll patronize network reality tonight, specifically So You Think You Can Dance. Despite having one of the worst television show names in history, this show gets better every season and actually improves as the season progresses. With fewer dancers, the performances are longer and we feel less of a need to leave the house and, you know, actually dance ourselves.
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It has been a big week for Joan Rivers: She survived a vicious Comedy Central mauling and a cheap shot by a Good Day Sacramento host that resulted in an expletive-laced live TV tell-off. Yesterday, Joan Rivers channeled her inner Joan Rivers (it's somewhere in there) at a TCA press conference to attack Jay Leno, her former Celebrity Apprentice enemies and anyone else in schvitzing distance, including a blood relative.
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The Television Critics Association Press Tour began on Tuesday and so far the voice crying loudest from the Pasadena wilderness is that of comedian George Lopez, announcing to the rest of the basic cable late night talk show pack that he's an alpha-lobo ready to hunt. Lopez and his producers promise that Lopez Tonight, premiering in November on TBS, will be spontaneous and feed off the audience's excitement and have "an energy that isn't anywhere on TV." Even though this is the first endeavor into late night programming for Lopez and TBS, no one appears to be lowering expectations just yet. Fine, we will play along with their little game, but we have some advice before Lopez starts channeling Johnny Carson.
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Last night, Fox launched the latest offensive in the anti-fatist revolution. Promising 20 plus-size young women a safe space and a safely hefty bachelor, More to Love's first episode showed that reality programming skanks come in all shapes and sizes. But as the episode (essentially The Bachelor xeroxed at 125%) unfolded, we found ourselves slipping into a crisis of confidence: Does Fox intend for us to laugh and create distance from these women who foolishly seek love (regardless of size) on a dating show? Or is this a backhandedly empowering pity party for larger women everywhere who can't get a date? It's a riddle as old as time.
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The reality talent competition show tour must be a grind on average American families, having to decompress from American Idol in time to find new favorites on So You Think You Can Dance and now America's Got Talent. It takes a lot out of children and parents to create and sever new emotional attachments to performers every few months and it's even more grueling when you consider the large number of hours spent watching judges ruin the dreams of semi-talented contestants. God bless America.
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This just tweeted in from the Television Critics Association panels: "Jeff Dunham's puppet makes fun of the French at #tca panel. French reporter in crowd yells out: 'You suck!'" We hear the journalists are being openly hostile to the Comedy Central-special-hogging ventriloquist. [FranklinAvenue]
Steve Zahn's appearance on The Tonight Show has been making the rounds this morning, with some suggesting the actor was perhaps under the influence of some home-cultivated medicinal analgesics while discussing his day-to-day farming duties back at his home in Kentucky (he talks to a horse named Dude, ignores the sheep, shovels crap -- basically all things one might also do living in L.A., only with actual animals). I don't know, I've watched it twice now -- what can I say, I'm a Zahn fan -- and he just strikes me as being the kind of guy who marches to the beat of his own hilarious sheep-bleating impressions.
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Yesterday, Movieline paid tribute to Ben Silverman, possibly the most ready-to-party exec that NBC has ever known. Even if the Peacock won't miss him, the fun-xecutive will always have a velvet roped-off area in our hearts, where he can rage with Molly Sims and white tigers all night long. But let's meet Jeff Gaspin, the new chairman of NBCU who is already being called the Anti-Ben: He's older, slightly paler and less likely to freestyle in the locker room.
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As alluded to in today's Buzz Break, a candid new Teen Vogue interview with Taylor Momsen notes that the Gossip Girl star and tween-rock sensation isn't really down with her age cohort. At least not socially or (it seems) romantically: "I would eat a boy my age alive." Fair enough! But let's take a step back and look at the other implications here, all of which seem to imply that her plus-age paramours might consider laying low for at least a little while -- especially if it can save them four years in prison.
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Last night, Canadian Bachelorette Jillian chose Ed, the conflicted workaholic who left the program only to return a couple weeks later, declaring that he had re-prioritized his life. But if Jason Mesnick's post-Bachelor plight taught us anything, it's that an interminable courtship montage means nothing until the After the Final Rose special.
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