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Posts tagged as “FOX”

Oh, boy.

Well well well…
You’re gone one week during Comic-Con and suddenly there’s tons of stuff to see.

I’m not gonna go into lengthy details about the various panels. There’s just too many of them.
Speaking of, can someone explain to me why Glee and The Middle had one?
I’ve only seen a few for now and listing the various announcements would be pointless (besides, you probably know the ones regarding your favorites).

The Lost panel was fun I thought but utterly pointless. Given that this was the last Comic-Con panel for the show, I feel a little disappointed.
Dollhouse was one of the best for sure (and Epitaph One is great). Season 2 looks interesting to say the least.

Moving on to other news, the new Coen movie (A Serious Man) looks great:

Same goes for Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox:

And don’t forget Avatar Day on the 21st (incidentally the same day Inglourious Basterds opens).

On a more serious (and TV) note, you probably have heard about the Emmy changes this year, including the pre-taping of 8 of the 28 categories of the “live” telecast (to cut a few minutes from the three-hour long program).
Even though the categories were split between directing, acting, producing and writing, only four writing categories were on the Emmy cast to begin with.
A few days ago, the WGA sent out this statement:

This action of the board of governors is a clear violation of a longstanding agreement the Writers Guilds have with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences regarding their awards telecast. It is also a serious demotion for writing and a fundamental misunderstanding of the importance of writers in the creation of television programs. Last year’s Emmys suffered a tremendous decline in quality and ratings because of a lack of scripted material. That the Academy would then decide to devalue the primary and seminal role that writing plays in television is ridiculous and self-defeating.

Over 100 TV writers are protesting these changes to the format, including Ronald D. Moore, Doug Ellin, Seth MacFarlane, Jason Katims, Shonda Rhimes, David Shore and Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof.
I’m not sure the Academy will back out on this one despite the movement, but we’ll have to see.

To conclude this catching-up post, some great info regarding the Late Late Show side. On August 31, the most underrated late-night show on TV is (finally) getting an HD upgrade!
There’s also going to be a new show opener with Ferguson going around famous L.A. locations, coupled with an updated version of the current theme song.
Like Craig said at the TCA Press Tour:

I think my show’s probably closer to Pee-Wee’s Playhouse than anything else I’ve seen, and that’s an aspiration.

 You go man.

Adaptation(s)

After Lordy and his Better Off Ted post, back today to our regular scheduled programming with a few news as Comic-Con nears.

To start us off, news that you probably know by now: Sean Benn is set to play the lead role on HBO’s Game of Thrones adaptation.
We talked a bit about the show when it was first picked up back in November but just to refresh your memory, the show is a fantasy series based off George R.R. Martin’s 7-book series, A Song of Fire & Ice.
THR describes the story as “a battle among seven kingdoms and between two ruling families for control of the Iron Throne, the possession that ensures survival through a 40-year winter to come”.
As for Benn, he’s set to play one of the title roles, Lord Eddard “Ned” Stark.

You may have heard as well about Futurama chainging its voice cast.
I probably won’t watch the new seasons if they do indeed replace Billy West, Katey Sagal, John Di Maggio, Tress MacNeille, and Maurice Lamarche (amongst others).
I’m still hoping though that FOX TV are only auditioning new actors as a bargaining chip. The move was previously (successfully) used on The Simpsons.

There have been a few pictures as well regarding the 2010 Prince of Persia movie based on the popular video game.
Check ’em out:



There’s also this live-action Voltron movie that is starting to come together nicely with Charles Roven, Richard Suckle and Steve Alexander acquiring the rights.
Let’s not forget another live-action adaptation, Turtle Ninjas, which unsurprisingly nabbed John Fusco as its writer. The movie is set to come out around 2011.

I wonder what the current entertainment industry would look like without all the remakes and adaptations…

Better Off Ted: Better Living Through Comedy

Better Off Ted: Better Living Through Comedy

Hello, Blog Nation. My name is Lordofnoyze, alias Lordy, and I have the honor to be the first guest blogger of TV Calling, so I hope to be up to the task. Either that, or I’m off answering calls in a Madagascar-based hotline company. And nobody wants that, especially not the fellow employees there.

I’m a French (former?) student about to embark in a career of journalism. But as a side hobby, ever since my teenage years, I’ve developed an unhealthy addiction for all things TV and TV shows. Soon, the voices in my…..er, I’ve been compelled to write about the good, the bad and the ugly in the now-defunct website “Ligue des Téléspectateurs Extraordinaires”, where I was getting a kick out at reviewing shows like “Boston Public”, “X-Files” or “American Dreams”. But college life, and the aforementioned closure of the site, got in the way, and after a (mostly) failed attempt at starting my own personal blog, I went on hiatus. Until today.

Also, I love pop and hip-hop music, so if you see a few “clever” musical references in some of the blogs, it’s not by pure randomness. And I love inserting them, especially when Lex is not looking. So, without further ado, here’s my first, show-and-prove blog.

For my first guest blog, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about an underrated, and below-the-radar comedy of this year. It just happens to close its season on July 28, burning off the 5 last episodes in summer. A usual move for shows that are cancelled (hello, Pushing Daisies! Dirty Sexy Money! Eli Stone!) , but not when the show is being renewed. I’m talking about “Better Off Ted”, one of the many ABC’s midseason entries (remember In The Motherhood? Yeah, me neither.)

A show that premiered somewhere in March, with little fanfare, and was paired with “Scrubs” on Wednesdays, just before “Lost”. Of course, it attracted under 5 million viewers, and 7 episodes were aired during the “normal” season. The show was as good as dead, but Steve McPherson and his army of drones considered there was “something” there and decided to save the show until Midseason 2010, where it will be paired with the new, almost-JD-less “Scrubs: TNG”, a.k.a. “Scrubs: the Yung, Hip, Med School Years”.

So what was that “something”? Did McPherson lose his mind?

Well, as all network presidents, he’s already genetically insane. But he’s right to keep the show on the air. Here’s why:

Set in the headquarters of a fictional multinational company called Veridian Dynamics, “Better Off Ted” is barely hilarious. No, it’s not the second coming of “Arrested Development”, even if it features a top-notch, pitch-perfect performance of Portia De Rossi as the cutthroat boss, Veronica. But it slowly unveils a sense of absurdity and delicate lunacy that is welcomed.

The 7 first episodes are really solid, mainly thanks to a really good pace in editing and directing (CRUCIAL in comedy), and a very promising cast. The lead, Jay Harrington, is hardly recognizable, but he’s been seen in the promising thriller “The Inside” opposite Rachel Nichols, and with Tim Minear as his boss. That doesn’t tell us much about his comedy chops. But he was really good as the unlucky reporter in “Back To You”, the FOX comedy that never really delivered on its great potential. As things stand, his character, Ted, is a handsome everyman that has to handle daily crises alongside Veronica. He also has to deal with the sexual tension with Linda (comedy journeywoman Andrea Anders), and the everlasting disputes and ramblings of Phil and Lem, the scene-stealing tandem of the show.

Of course, it already seems like the comedy version of “Fringe”, with mad science aplenty. But the show works primarily because of the interaction and cracks between his characters, and the evil and outright absurdity that is Veridian Dynamics is kept in the second plan. Unless you wanna count the hilarious commercials, that illustrate the “theme” of each episode.

Plenty of credit goes to Victor Fresco, creator of “Andy Richter Controls the Universe”, another underrated gem that recently was released in DVD in the USA. But it feels like the show has yet to really deliver and free itself of the conventions, since it already has a universe of its own. For example, the lab rats that are partners of Phil and Lem, or Ted’s daughter, were barely used during the season, but are strong nevertheless.

So, if you want to check those out, the final episodes are being aired on ABC over the next few weeks. Definitely more worthy of your time than, say, the umpteenth season of “Entourage”.