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Posts tagged as “NBC”

Worse to come

The news on everyone’s mind is yesterday’s Emmy nomination list.
As some of you saw via my Twitter reactions, I was pretty pissed at some stuff that got on the list.

Let’s begin with Family Guy.
Now, I don’t hate the show, actually I watch it religiously.
My problem has to do with that it’s Family Guy getting the honors of being the first animated program to be nominated in the Best Comedy category in 50 years or so, instead of The Simpsons.
Also, I don’t believe the show is that good.
It might have been during the first few seasons but not currently.

I don’t appreciate the various writing noms this year either. And by various, I mean the complete opposite.
Four out of five comedy writing noms are for 30 Rock, and four out of five drama writing noms are for Mad Men!
Ridiculous.

My third problem is with another nomination, this time Drama-side: Lost.
Yet again, I’m a huge Lost fan (remember when I interviewed Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse? I sure do), I’ve been with the show since day one.
But this latest season was just atrociously bad, let alone majorly retcon.
Long story short, Lost‘s Season Five shouldn’t be worth the nomination.
Remember how four out of five drama writing noms were for Mad Men?
Well the other one is for, wait for it, Lost‘s The Incident (Season 5 finale).
Out of every drama hours from the past year, they chose this one?
Not even a tiny Breakind Bad episode?

Lost shouldn’t even be nominated for Best Drama, which brings me to my next problem.
With seven contenders this year, I would have expected some outsiders joining the show. Fortunately, Flight of the Conchords was nominated.
On the other hand however, Lost getting on meant The Shield‘s final season got the boot.
Not cool.
I would have liked to see In Treatment in there as well.
Hopefully, Breaking Bad will win.

A new category was announced as well, Outstanding Special Class – Short-format Live-Action Entertainment, also known as the ‘Online Stuff’ category.
With the exception of the Super-Bowl show, all the other noms are webisodes of some kind.
Obviously, Dr. Horrible was nominated.
One might wonder if this category was made just for Dr. Horrible.
It’s a given it will get the Emmy.
Speaking of, Scifi Wire has an interview up with Joss Whedon talking about this nomination, amongst other things.

Another major snub includes Michael Giacchino’s wonderful Lost score being completely ignored from the Outstanding Music Composition category.
Instead, such musical classic as Castle, Legend of the Seeker, and even Ghost Whisperer got the nom.

So much to complain about, I must have left out some other things.
In any case, yeah, I’m pissed at the 61st Emmy Awards.
And they haven’t even started yet.

A few previews have appeared for some interesting upcoming shows.

The first is AMC’s Rubicon starring James Badge Dale and Lili Taylor based on a Jason Horwitch script.
Check out this trailer:

FX meanwhile has made a 6-episode order for an animated comedy series named Archer and created by Adam Reed and Matt Thompson who previously worked on Sealab 2021.
As for what it is about, see the following extract:

And finally, two other TV tidbits.
First, some Station news. The FOX show produced by Ben Stiller’s Red Hour, not a network station.
John Goodman has been cast as the co-star alongside Justin Bartha on this series created by Kevin Napier about covert CIA operatives working on installing a new dictatorship in Central America.
The pilot will be shot by Role Model‘s David Wain.

Also, NBC has picked-up Persons Unknown, a 13-episode series Christopher McQuarrie, who won an Oscar in 1994 for his Usual Suspects script.
The show, produced showrunner Remi Aubuchon, Christopher & Heather McQuarrie, revolves around strangers waking up in a deserted town with no recollection of how they got there. They must now work together to escape by solving puzzles.

I’m looking forward to all these four shows.

Third Rock: A lonely planet of laughs (and guests)

For the past week I’ve been rewatching one of my favorite comedies, Third Rock from the Sun.

The show lasted for 6 seasons between 1996 and 2001 on NBC.
In my opinion, it is one of the most underrated sitcoms out there.

Third Rock stars John Lithgow, Kristen Johnston (both of whom have won Emmys for their performances), as well as French Stewart and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Rounding up the cast are Jane Curtin, Simbi Khali and Wayne Knight.

If you don’t already know the story, it’s about four aliens that have landed on Earth to study humankind.
They’ve assimiliated human forms and are now amongst us…

The wiki article about the series has a pretty detailed analysis on its themes, mythology, and source of humor:

Almost all the episodes revolve around the Solomons’ difficulty integrating themselves into Earth culture and understanding human customs — often their view of Earth realities is distorted by the fact that almost all of their experience of Earth comes through the media, especially television, rather than firsthand experience.

The Season 2 finale is probably one of the best finales out there just for the sublime 3-D dream sequence each character has.
Check these two out:

The show likes as well to use existing real-life relationships and bonds to create character dynamics.
John Lithgow’s son, Ian Lithgow, plays one of Dick’s students, Leon.
Also, David DeLuise plays another recurring student, Bug Pollone. During the 17th episode of Season 3 (Auto Eurodicka), the DeLuise family was reunited on screen to play the rest of the Pollone family.

Numerous guest-stars have appeared on the show throughout the years.
To only name a few (from the first 3 seasons):


Dennis Rodman                                                      Al Franken


Dick Martin                                                  Philip Baker Hall


Mark Hamill                                                      Roseanne Barr

The 1-hour supermodel episode made for Super Bowl XXX featured, as you may have guessed, supermodels such as:


Cindy Crawford                                                      Beverly Johnson

There are also a few (almost) unrecognizable faces thrown into the mix.

Emile Hirsch playing one of his first on-screen roles:

And there is even Peter Krause as an Irish tap dancer! (you’ll love his fake accent)


If you have never seen the show (or even have), go (re)watch it.
It’s just great comedy.

Pusher

“Good news everyone!”
Hulu plans to arrive in the U.K. this September after reaching content deals with loval broadcasters.
Though a few thousand hours of US shows are bound to be featured on there, it is highly unlikely that “premium” content such as ABC’s and NBC’s shows will be on the UK version.

THR meanwhile has an inside look at HBO’s new great show, Bored to Death, with Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis:

Looks great.