Back To You

frasier, i mean kelsey grammer, is back on tv and after 20 years or so he is finally playing a different character (besides those great side show bob episodes on The Simpsons).

last night fox premiered Back To You, starring kelsey and Everybody Loves Raymond wife patricia heaton. i actually don't have that much to say about it besides, 'it was okay'. there were some funny laugh out loud moments, and the supporting cast seems funny - especially the great fred willard. it is a solid sitcom without standing out as anything great - unlike the three sitcoms the two stars have worked on before: Cheers, Everybody Loves Raymond and Frasier. now those were three great comedies.

for now i'm gonna keep it on the good 'ol tivo, but i wasn't particularly drawn in by the storyline, and unless things change it looks like it might turn into a watch-it-if-i-catch-it-and-i'm-not-watching-anything-else-but-if-
not-then-no-big-deal. only time, and a couple more episodes, will tell.

grade: at this point B-

K-Ville And Prison Break

the new tv season has begun and we will be looking at it all as it unfolds over the next few weeks. but for now we have gotten started with the season premier Prison Break and the seriese premier of K-Ville - both on fox on monday nights.

i have been a fan of Prison Break during its first two seasons and was looking forward to the new season, and the premier didn't disappoint.

michael scofield found himself in a panamanian prison at the end of last season and that is where he starts this one - along with some other recognizable characters. and as we find out by the end of the episode, he has been put there in order to help someone escape. SWEET!!!

Prison Break isn't known for its brilliant dialogue or depth of character. it is a cool, fun, exciting show that hooks you and doesn't let go and the season opener lived up to expectations. sure there are some generic characters in the prison and predictable story developments, but that is all moot. the show is fast and intense and i am looking forward to a good season.

as for K-Ville, i wasn't as impressed. the show has some action and such, but the detective/'mystery' part of the show was really not that interesting. what i liked was the characters and the dealing with a post-katrina new orleans and how the city is still so far from what it once was even these years later.

its easy for us to go about our lives and forget about it now that the telethons are over and it isn't in the news all the time, but the people that it effected are still dealing with the repercussions and will be for probably a lot longer.

pilots aren't always the best way to judge a show, so i will keep it on my tivo for now and see where it goes.

Prison Break
grade: B+

K-Ville
grade: B- (but could go up or down and will be adjusted after i check out a few more episodes)

$500 000 Worth Of The Truth

ok, i know i should be appalled by this, but i find it very intriguing, albeit mostly in a guilty-pleasure type way.

fox has just gotten themselves the u.s. rights to the huge columbian tv hit, Nothing But The Truth. wait, you haven't heard how the game works yet. this is the best part.

- contestants are hooked up to a lie detector and asked 21 questions. if they answer all 21 questions truthfully (according to the lie detector) then they walk away with $500 000. it might sound easy, but the questions do get more and more personal and delicate as they go along. it might start off with a question like 'do you like your mother in law' and eventually get to 'have you ever cheated on your spouse?'

and of course the contestants family will be in the audience with cameras catching every reaction.

Don't Forget The Great Contestant

i caught fox's Don't Forget The Lyrics for the first time tonight and i have to say, not only do i like it better then nbc's Singing Bee, but that chick teresa was a great contestant. not only could she sing and was cute, but she was just funny. - sometimes these 'wacky' contestant are just annoying, but i really enjoyed her. the producers did a good job finding this one. and she was just good at knowing the lyrics.

as for the show itself. like i said - i enjoyed it more then Singing Bee. i like the format better (which i wouldn't have thought i would given that it is a total Who Wants To Be A millionaire/Deal Or No Deal rip off). - actually, i don't think it was the format, but rather i just think i had more fun playing along with 'Lyrics' then 'Singing Bee'. also, brady is a funnier host.

its not a show i'm gonna tivo or anything, but i'll catch it again.

Don't Forget The Singing Bee

well folks, it looks like people really like watching other people try to remember the lyrics to songs. i say this because not only has nbc placed Singing Bee on its fall schedule, but fox has ordered 13 more episodes of their version of the same thing, Don't Forget The Lyrics.

when fox announced that they were going to do a 'karaoke' show similar to nbc's and air it before nbc had planned on airing theirs, nbc quickly premiered their Singing Bee a day before fox did theirs. it all reminded me of a few years back when we got Wife Swap and Trading Spouses at the same time - or if we look at movies: Armageddon/Deep Impact, Dante's Peak/Volcano, etc....

anyway, who knew that north americans love of karaoke was so strong as to be able to support to name-the-lyrics shows, but that is what has happened. who knows if fox's don't Forget The Lyrics will make it past the summer or if Singing Bee will be able to hold its own once the new fall season starts? only time will tell me friends.

NBC Fall Schedule Shuffle

two weeks ago on the podcast - episode #45 - we previewed nbc's fall lineup. well, it has just changed a little, with nbc announcing that Friday Night Lights will go to fridays at 9pm rather then 10pm and Las Vagas will move from 9pm to the 10pm slot.

also, the new show Chuck (which is the new nbc show i am most looking forward to) is moving from tuesday at 9pm to the monday at 8pm slot right before Heroes which is followed by another new show, Journeyman.

the move for Chucks now puts it up against: Prison Break on fox, How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory on cbs and Dancing With The Stars on abc.

- on tuesday at 9pm it was up against: The Unit on cbs, House on Fox and Dancing With The Stars results show on abc

hmmmmm? so what so we think of this move? obviously they are hoping that the lead-in to heroes will help them and attract a similar crowd. i don't know though. since the show looks to be a comedy/drama/spyish mix it is now going up against Prison Break which has the thrill/excitement genre down - and a great cliff hanger from last season. also, abc's Dancing With The Stars doesn't do it for me, but that show has been doing great ratings. and then you have the first half of cbs's comedy monday (at least its not going up against the high-rated Two And A A Half Men).

on tuesday night: sure House is big, but Chuck is a very different show from House so it would be counter-programming in a way. and also the results shows are always lower rated then the competition ones. however, they might also have felt that The Biggest Loser wasn't the right lead in for Chuck and that having it at 9pm wouldn't get enough people coming from other networks after their 8pm shows.

we shall see i guess, but like i said i think Chuck looks good. i am however a big Prison Break fan - thank god for tivo!!!!

The Loop

i missed fox's show, The Loop when it premiered last year and i assumed i hadn't missed much since most sitcoms are not that funny. however, i was wrong. i just caught an episode tonight (fox is burning off a bunch of episodes over the next few weeks) and i have to say it was damn funny. quick, witty dialogue, fun characters and i have to say that i laughed out loud multiple times.

the only problem is that now that i found the show i am pissed that it has been canceled, but that has been a reoccurring theme this last tv season so i guess this is just par for the course. if you have a chance, check out The Loop while you still can.

On The Lot Picks Host And Judges

i would have thought that they would have done all this by the time the show aired, but according to this article at Zap2It, apparently On The Lot has just now announced who the judges and host will be. carrie fischer and garry marshal are staying for the season as judges, but the host of the first couple shows is gone and adrianna costa will now host the rest of the season.

because reality tv is cheap to produce, this is the start of the summer season and you have people like mark burnett and steven spielberg behind the show, i am pretty sure we will get a full season. however, the ratings have been pretty poor, which is too bad because it is actually a pretty good show from what i have seen so far. it has all the typical ingredients of the genre, but being a bit of a film maker myself i find it pretty interesting and exciting. basically, it is 'The Apprentice Goes To The Movies'.

Family Wars

hey Star Wars fans and Family Guy fans. now, like what happened for peanut butter and chocolate lovers many years ago, your two favorite things are coming together this september. for their season five premier, Family Guy will do a whole Star Wars episode with all the characters portraying characters from the movie (stewie is darth vadar of course).

the thing i found most interesting about this was that the episode has got full approval from lucasfilm. this won't be the first time they have payed 'homage' to Star Wars, but this will be a full hour-long episode rather then little bits.

The Simpsons Is The king

i know everyone is on the Family Guy bandwagon these days (and ya i think it is a funny show), but for me The Simpsons is still the king. it has been around all these years and is still making me laugh with great writing, silly jokes, sight gags and strong social satire.

it isn't the pop culture icon it was when it was at its peek audience wise, but i think people have just gotten so used to it being so good that they don't give it the credit it still justly deserves. case in point the season finally '24' episode last sunday. come on people, that shit was funny. i hear people talk about how the show isn't as good as it used to be, but that usually comes from people who aren't watching the show anymore, so how the hell would they know. did they see the homer gets a gun episode, or the 'Catch Me If You Can' parody? how about the 'kent brockman swears on tv episode' or the one where marge joins an online role playing game and homer becomes a soccer ref. and i can go on... the show is still top of the animated comedy heap. check that. it is right up there with the best sitcoms on tv, animated or not.

i know it just missed my list of top 15 shows on tv, but i have to say it JUST missed the making the list and that shouldn't be an indication that my feelings for the show are anything but good. and i can't wait for the movie.

grade: A

Randy's Jacket And Other Idol Thoughts

okay, i wasn't planning on writing about American Idol tonight, but i just turned it on and caught blake's 'you give love a bad name' (i think simon and randy were right about him being a little flat with the singing, but that beat boxin' was hot).

anyway, that's not why i am posting here. did you see randy's jacket? that thing is not good.

before i go: jordin is finishing up her 'fighter' song, and i have to say in my best simon cowell impression 'that was just ok for me'.

they are both going to have to do better...

i'm back: okay so jordin's second performance was great. that's what I expect from a finalist.

i'm back again: how bad were the other thousands of entries that that piece of mediocre junk won the songwriting competition?

Drive Is Coming Back (Not Really)

sorry if i got all you Drive fans excited there for a second, but given the poor ratings the show had, there really aren't that many of you out there (i'll admit i was kind of one of the few. didn't think it was a great show, but was beginning to get interested in a guilty pleasure kind of way).

anyway, the point is that on july 4th fox will air the 2 hours of the show that they have left. i guess there were only 6 hours filmed and produced so far, and since we have already had the first 4 hours, we can now watch the last two. this is very nice of them and all, but the problem is that won't it just leave us hanging with more questions and such?

oh well. i guess that is all we are going to get so enjoy it.

Terminator Coming to TV

ever since seeing Terminator 3 have you been waiting for something to come along to fill in the story gaps between the second and third films? well, you are in luck folks, because it looks pretty good that next season the fox network will bring us The Sarah Conner Chronicles.
on my film podcast "filmed but not forgotten" last week i talked about the new T4 movie that is going to be made, so for any Terminator fans who thought that T3 was the end of the line, you have a lot more T to come.

check out the rest of the article for more fox at the upfronts news.

FX Is All Set

fx began its life years ago as a run-of-the-mill cable channel showing 20th century fox movies and reruns of fox television shows (i'm talking about after the whole fx live and interactive thing before that). however, today it has created quite a line-up of original programming that is second to none (not even hbo).

i bring this up in the context of the network just having announced a second season pickup of both Dirt (haven't watched it yet) and The Riches (great show). not only that, but they have also set their schedule for the rest of 07-08 as far as their other shows go as well. - check out a few more details here.

Drive Gets Canceled

well i didn't know it at the time, but i was dead on when i called the show Drive a guilty pleasure, but commented that "if the poor ratings for last nights premier are any indication, it might be a short lived guilty pleasure", because Drive has been canned. after airing only three times fox has said 'enough' and ended it.

look, i'm not going to claim that Drive was a great show, i mean i gave it a B-, but this constant canceling of shows after only a couple airings is really starting to piss me off. i will be ok without knowing how drive ends, but there have been some really good shows that have suffered the same fate this season and those i am not ok with: Daybreak, The Knights Of Prosperity, The Nine and The Black Donnelly's to name a few.

why can't a show, especially a quality one (and the networks know which ones are quality and which ones aren't) get a chance to build an audience. Seinfeld, Cheers and Friends weren't huge hits when they premiered, but look what they turned into (huge hits and huge moneymakers for the networks).

yes, i understand that in a 1000 channel world the audience has so many options that the networks feel they need to grab an audience fast if they want the advertisers to stick around and they also want certain demographics and such and all television shows are really (at least on free tv), are things to kill time between commercials. i get all that, but that doesn't make it right, and a lot of the time that is a network just being really nearsighted.

look at Criminal Minds as a very modern example. that show took a little while to get going, but it did, and this year is actually beat Lost in the ratings a few times when they were on at the same time. also, the ratings for The Office have improved over its first season, so it can happen and it isn't a crazy notion either.

that's why i appreciate what nbc is doing with 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights, assuming they renew the latter like it looks as if they are leaning towards doing. these are two high-quality shows that deserve a chance at building an audience.

sure sometimes it just doesn't happen, look at Arrested Development. they got a couple extra seasons more then their ratings would have suggested, but it just never caught on (too bad cause it was a great show), but at least it had a shot. canceling a show after 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 episodes just isn't fair to the show or the audience that is getting into it or that might have gotten into it had they given them a chance.

back to Drive: fox hasn't said what they will do with the remaining episodes they have in the can, but putting them online seems to be the thing to do these days so i wouldn;t be surprised if that is what they do.

Watching American Idol Right Now

- that 'crazy little thing called love' video that the idols did was another corny/cheezy thing that reminded me of the early seasons when they used to do one of those every couple weeks it seemed.

- that 'staying alive' video with all the celebrities was actually really fun.

- josh grobin's number with the african childrens choir was great and the one with kelly clarkson and jeff beck was beautiful.

- the Simpson's bit was hysterical. lisa as paula abdul, marge as randy jackson and homer as simon were so funny. bart's dunkleman quip at the end was great also.

- annie lennox - yet another great performance: man, seeing all these great performances really puts the idols in their place as far as how much work they have to do.

- no one goes home, that was the big frickin' surprise? what a lame surprise. hey, i'm all for keeping everyone around on a night of charity and giving, but to hype it up with the intensity that they did was just lame.

Mr. President, You Owe Me!

i know it's a little late, but i thought that line from the episode of 24 a couple weeks ago was frickin' awesome and i had to mention it.

next bit of 24 talk is the relationship between acting president daniels and his hot blonde assistant lisa. normally this show is great in the casting department and i thought powers boothe was a perfect v.p. daniels. however, the love affair between him and lisa looks so uncomfortable (did you see that kiss at the end of this weeks episode).

speaking of lisa: is it just me or does anyone else think that there is more to this chick then meets the eye? she has got something going on and i'm pretty sure it ain't gonna be good.

24 Hours Of Great Television

Get 24 on DVD

i am an old time 24 fan. from the moment i heard about the show many months before it premiered i thought it sounded like an original and interesting premise. it lived up to my high-expectations back then and has continued to do so through each subsiquent intense and edge-of-your-seat season.

i have never watched a more intense show then 24. the show provides lots of action and intrigue, but yet it also manages to create strong attachments to the characters. the crisis doesn't just bring the characters together, but it also brings them closer to us and we feel a real sense of loss when anyone, even a minor character, gets killed off, which happens quite a bit (i would name off a few, but i don't want to fuin it for anyone who is still a few seasons behind and catching up on dvd).

and you do want to catch up on dvd if at all possible. sure you could watch any season individually, but there are a lot of recurring characters and references to prior seasons that makes it much more exciting and worthwhile to go through them in order (it is always a great moment when some charcter from a past season appears unexpectidly to help or hurt the situation)

at first i was a little worried/curious as to how they were going to make this into anything more then a one or two season show. but they have managed to do so, and just when you think a season itself is getting old or has nowhere to go they throw a wrench in the works and take you off in another direction. for example: the whole audrey raines thing this season.

although there are complaints about the show focusing on the middle east for its bad guys, anyone who has watched the show knows that they have had bad guys from all over the world, including: china, mexico, ex-american agents, russia and the american government itself. there is even a rumour that the bad guys in season 7 will be quebec seperatists (a faction of quebecers that advocate for the province to seperate from canada and become a sovreign nation) - it's about time the show 'came to canada': kieffer sutherland is canadian and one of the producers of the show, jon casser, is from montreal.

whatever they decide to do i will be there watching every second of the next 24 hours and of course there are still five hours left this season.

grade: A+

Simon Cowell Is A Big Baby

simon can dish it out but he can't take it. he can be mean, sorry i mean 'be honest'(imagine a british accent and chest rubbing) all day long with the contestants, but the minute seacrest needles him a little or questions him a bit (often legitimately) he gets so defensive, bitchy and pouty :( - there he is doing it right now as i type this.

i don't dislike the guy. i think he is often right about what he says to the singers (sanjya did suck this week with the bonnie raitt song), but he (and the other judges) have at this point become way too interested in themselves and their fame rather then the idols. they are becoming caricatures of themselves.

Wanna Go For A Drive?

last night fox premiered the show Drive. the show, about an illegal cross-country road race has been in the works and re-works for over a year now and has finally made it to air. so what do we get for all that waiting and fixing and such? we get a corny, stereotypical, poorly written, fun and kind of exciting show - think of it as the movie Rat Race meets the tv show Fastlane with a Prsion Break mystery of unknown forces thrown in.

so ya, i kind of liked it, but in a guilty pleasure sort of way. some of the dialogue made me groan and the characters all felt like cookie cutter 'screen writing for dummies' creations, but i wanted to see what would happen next.

Now, i try not to judge a show based on the pilot episode because usually they get to wrapped up in giving us information and introducing characters and their characteristics and the episode tends to feel a little forced. as it is now though, i think it is, like i said, an medium range show that i will follow. However, if the poor ratings for last nights premier are any indication, it might be a short lived guilty pleasure. we shall see.

the premise is original at least (meaning it isn't about cops and doesn't take place in a hospital or law firm) and they did set up plenty of mystery and unknowns that will be revealed as the race goes along. all that being said, Drive doesn't yet appear to be more then that. they didn't take this actually could-be-exciting premise and turn it into something smart and really interesting like Lost (i am a little surprised given that one of the show's creators is tim minear, who was one of the guys behind the short lived, but excellent, show Wonderfalls that was on fox a few years back).

instead they created a guilty pleasure and didn't really go beyond that. is that a bad thing? not necessarily. it is what it is, and while it isn't as good as Prison Break or 24 (the two other monday night adrenaline rushes) so far it is a fun enough ride that has intrigued me enough to make me keep watching for now.

p.s. one of my biggest pet peeves in movies and tv is during driving scenes when the character driving is talking to the passenger and spends more time looking at the other person then actually watching the road. given that Drive spends most of its time in cars, that is something they really have to watch out for, cause there have been a few times where it was laughable.

grade: B-