TV Talk with GMMR and Ducky is back! After 7 weeks, we were finally able to see each other and dish all the dirt on our favorite shows.
Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, House, Gossip Girl, American Idol, The Office, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, Brothers & Sisters, So You Think You Can Dance, Ugly Betty, Greek and so much more.
We take some last minute listener questions on which finale’s we’re most looking forward to and also which hot summer movies our fave TV stars are popping up in. Not to mention Kath gets to wax The Office finale after one Canadian listener begs for finale information.
Also, be on the lookout for the return of TWO IDIOTS TALK LOST! We watch the show but we’re not experts, sue us.
Have a question for Ducky and GMMR? There are a couple ways to contact us:
Free Voice Mail (Comments/Questions):
This is Dan and Kathie’s favorite method of contact because it allows us to hear from you and we use these messages live on our podcast to answer your burning television questions. It’s FREE and you don’t have to do anything but click RECORD BY PHONE on the box below and it will walk you through how to contact us!
It’s super easy and free to leave us a message:
Step 1: Click on “Record by Phone”
Step 2: Dial the number shown and enter the four digit code when prompted
Step 3: Leave a message
Step 4: Listen to our next podcast to see if we answered your question
Last night before Jon and I sat down to watch an incredible episode of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, Jon said that this morning on XM Jeffrey Tambor mentioned that an ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT movie was in the works while promoting his new crap show. I had FNL to contend with so I didn’t bother looking into it until this morning but wow…
E! is reporting that Jason Bateman has confirmed that story.
Jason Bateman has just confirmed to me that the creative minds behind Arrested Development (Mitch Hurwitz and Ron Howard) have put the wheels in motion toward a major motion picture of the Fox TV comedy so many of us adore. I’m told by insiders that Jason and other Bluth family members have received calls from producers (Hurwitz and Howard) asking if they would be willing to shoot a movie.
“I can confirm that a round of sniffing has started,” Bateman says. “Any talk is targeting a poststrike situation, of course. I think, as always, that it’s a question of whether the people with the money are willing to give our leader, Mitch Hurwitz, what he deserves for his participation. And I can speak for the cast when I say our fingers are crossed.”
Jeffrey Tambor also revealed on XM Radio’s the Ron and Fez Show that he has been approached by Ron Howard to see if he’s willing to do an Arrested film. (You can hear that interview below.)
For the record, both Jason and Jeffrey’s answers were: Hells yeah. And I hear from other sources that other castmembers were called and that everyone seems to be very much on board and excited by the prospect.
Insiders also tell me that while creator Mitch Hurwitz does not yet have a script, he has a good, solid understanding of what he’d like to do for the movie, and Universal is very much interested.
And so it seems that a few good—wait, no, outrageously amazing—things just might come out of this unfortunate writers’ strike, as the creative minds in this town have had time to pause, regroup and think about their dream projects.
They best find a way to incorporate Lucille 2 into the mix because Liza might not be kicking around much longer and I need her brilliance in the film as well. This is some of the best news I’ve heard in months; I cannot stand how excited I am right now!
Everyone’s sick of end of year lists but how can I not do one on my favorite TV shows of 2007? I always find these lists hard to do because 12 months is a really long time and we watch a LOT of TV. I wish I could prepare enough ahead of time to write up some great “moments” that stand out but let’s be honest… I don’t get paid to do this so that’s not gonna happen.
Regardless, the end of the 2006-2007 season provided lots of thrills and even a few tears. The 2007-2008 season started off so promising but as we all know, many shows just didn’t live up to the hype and the WGA Strike has kind of killed any hope of making this a banner year for television. So what did I choose? Did I pick a previous favorite that ended last May? Did I give a sophmore series about superheroes another nod? Did those Housewives make a showing after being off the list for so many years? Here goes.
Ducky’s Favorite TV of 2007:
30 ROCK I was late jumping on the 30 Rock train but once I gave it a chance late last winter, I instantly fell in love. 30 Rock is the successor to Arrested Development and I actually may love it even more. Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin together are impossibly brilliant and the supporting cast only add to the mayhem and madness. Highlights: Season 1’s “I love NY in springtime” moment, Season 2’s return of Will Arnett, “Me Want Food” and “Gay for Jamie“.
CHUCK Chuck Bartowski, how I love you! The funniest thing about Chuck is that GMMR and I had seen the pilot probably 10 times before we hit Comic-Con where Zac Levi and crew got a superheroes reception from the geek gala. I don’t know that the show has lived up to my expectations but I can’t say that I don’t love watching it every week. There’s an inherent sweetness to this action-comedy that makes me squee. Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski are magnificent together and anytime Adam Baldwin gets to be a smartass, I’m on board. So sad that the WGA Strike put an end to our enjoyment of the Nerd Herd! Highlights: The Pilot, Chuck and Lou, Captain Awesome’s many skin shots, and the return of Bryce Larkin.
DAMAGES Week after week this intense drama built to a shockingly graphic climax and it kept me guessing every step of the way. Glenn Close, Rose Byrne and Ted Danson delivered crazy intense performances for 13 weeks, proving that summer is not for the lazy brainless reality shows any longer. It was great interviewing most of the cast this summer, it really made me realize how brilliant the writing of the show really is. Kudos to FX for sticking with Damages and granting us 2 more seasons. Highlights: The endless time shifting and the seemless togetheness of it all, Glenn Close’s reaction to Ray Fiske blowing his brains out, the closing moments on the dock.
DOCTOR WHO/TORCHWOOD The one-two punch of Doctor Who and Torchwood coupled with my going to Comic-Con made 2007 my geekiest year to date. Season 3 of Doctor Who was probably the best of the new series. While I loved and miss Rose, Martha was a great companion. Capt. Jack may have ended up on Who at the end of Season 3 but more importantly he kicked some demon ass all season on his own show, Torchwood. Harkness, Gwen, Ianto, Owen, and Tosh made their show so much more than a spin-off. Torchwood delivered thrills, chills, and tears and I cannot wait for it’s return early in 2008. Highlights:Who’s Donna the Runaway Bride, “Human Nature” and the scary intense weeping angels of “Blink”. Torchwood’s gayness, “Random Shoes” with Eugene, Billis the scariest wrinkled creepy since the Preacher Kane from Poltergeist.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS The Dillon Panthers won State, the audience won another season and all seemed great down there in Texas. Then poor Tyra and Landry had to dump a body in a river leading to the most interesting coupling the show could ever have concocted. Some balked at the stunt plotline but I welcomed it once I saw how unbelievable both Adrianne Palicki and Jessie Plemons would make their roles. The Taylors continued to bring one of the most realistic and beautiful families to television not to mention Connie Britton’s acting her ass off. Highlights: Winning State, Plemons acting, Santiago’s first moment in the game during “The Confession”… breathtaking.
LOST Say what you will about Season 3 of LOST but the addition of Juliet and the jump forward solidified the show as greatness in my book. While it took a bit to flesh out Ben’s backstory, Juliet’s arrival on the island, Mr. Friendly’s allegiance, and the involvement of the Whidmore’s it was all worth the wait. We got some great answers this season, some scary twists and turns, some great revelations, some wonderful death’s, and HELLO, the chaos surrounding who’s coming to the island in Season 4? Matthew Fox continued to bring anxiety and sadness to the role of Jack and it’s a damn shame he wasn’t nominated for something this year. I’m psyched for it’s return on January 31st! Highlights: The story of how Juliet came to the island, the death of Charlie, the flash-forward, and Patch!
MAD MEN Seriously, do I even need to explain why Mad Men is on the list? The acting, the writing, the art direction, the costuming, the genius? Another summer sleeper that rocked my socks! Highlights: Jon Hamm as Don Draper, any scene with Joan, the sadness of the era, Don Draper’s carousel pitch.
PUSHING DAISIES The facts are these: Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Kristin Chenoweth and Chi McBride are my favorite finds of 2007. Bryan Fuller created a vivid, magical world I didn’t realize was missing from making my life complete until it slapped me in the face. My favorite pilot of 2007 led to stalking Fuller and Co. at Comic-Con, creating a fansite called ThePieMaker.com, and landed me on the Red Carpet interviewing these great talents. What a summer and fall leading up to the premiere of Pushing Daisies. This show makes me beyond happy and I cannot wait for its return in 2008. Highlights: The pilot, Ellen Greene, the musical numbers, Ned & Chuck, Bryan Fuller and Lee Pace recognizing me on the red carpet with hugs all around. Swoon…
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE I have to include SYTYCD because seriously could there have been a bigger obsession all summer long? Sure I loved Damages and Mad Men but sweet lord did it not compare to my lunacy over Neil Haskell and the rest of the dancers on SYTYCD. Highlights: Neil and Sabra’s boardroom brawl, Cat Deeley’s flawless hosting, Mary Murphy’s continued screaming, Wade Robson’s increased involvement, Debbi Allen and Shankman, backstage on tour.
SUPERNATURAL Love those Winchester’s. In a year that saw Sammy go real dark, the demise of YED, and a soul searching Dean, how can I not love Supernatural? The end of Season 2 was a wild wild ride but the beginning of Season 3 proved that this show is not and will not be stereotyped. Broadening the horizons of the demon world has suited the show nicely. Sure the addition of Ruby and Bela has been problematic for some but I can overlook that because the suspense and the gore has increased! Highlights:Visiting the set last May, blood and more blood, Supernatural:Origins comics, the return of Gordon.
The rest of the best:Battlestar Galactica, Big Bang Theory, Brothers & Sisters, Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother, Project Runway, Psych, The Closer, The Office, Top Chef and the end of Veronica Mars.
Should be on the list but isn’t for one reason or another: Dexter (never finished Season 2 because we got rid of Showtime but I’m dying to see the rest), Bones (just got addicted so I felt it couldn’t be added just yet - though let it be known that I’m obsessed), Dirty Sexy Money (something just isn’t right just yet, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love it).
Have a safe and Happy New Year! Looking forward to a wonderful and hopefully television filled 2008.
I still don’t know how I feel about this new revamping of Knight Rider. It was cheesy as all get out when I was a kid, and I don’t know that we should all be getting our hopes up over a rushed redux. Regardless, it is something television related and with the WGA Strike waging on, this actually is news.
Will Arnett’s voice as K.I.T.T. is pretty hot though, no?
I actually pondered this question on EMMY night when 30 ROCK won for Best Comedy Series. I had a flashback to a couple years ago when the mega-genius ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT won Best Comedy Series yet was on the verge of cancellation.
I jumped on the 30 ROCK bandwagon pretty late but thanks to my friend Nancy for insisting I watch, I now think it’s the perfect heir to the AD thrown. It’s wacky, it’s beyond left field, and it’s incredibly well written and acted and its now winning awards for being so. How long can this last though?
One of primetime network television’s many dirty little secrets is that, considering how hip and trendy single-camera comedies are supposed to be, almost nobody watches them. The two highest-rated comedies on TV? Those would be the ultra-square “Two and a Half Men” and “Rules of Engagement” on CBS, both of which incorporate the supposedly antiquated multiple cameras.
This does not bode well, of course, for a little NBC half-hour called “30 Rock” that on Sept. 16 became officially double-cursed. Not only did it barely draw flies during its rookie campaign, it also earned the Emmy Award for outstanding comedy series, a combination that proved fatal to a quirky single-camera Fox comedy called “Arrested Development.”
But here’s the really bad news: Even “Arrested Development” drew more eyeballs in its first season (6.2 million weely) than did “30 Rock” (a scant 5.4 million). You know you’re in trouble when a show marked by its minuscule audience numbers scorches you in the Nielsens.
Alas, “30 Rock” already has outlasted the man who renewed it: deposed NBC Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly, who now holds down the programming fort at Fox. It was nonetheless a tremendous vote of confidence that NBC would bring back a series whose viewership average is nearly tripled by “Two and a Half Men” and whose creator-producer-writer-star Tina Fey was moved, during her Emmy acceptance speech, to thank the “dozens and dozens” of fans who support it.
That winning an Emmy is no guarantee of boosting ratings is almost a proverb considering what it didn’t do for “Arrested.” But “30 Rock,” determined not to concede this fight, is pulling out a mighty weapon in hopes of reversing this particular trend when the show kicks off its second season next Thursday: a stunt casting extravaganza named Jerry Seinfeld, whose incredulous self is all over the premiere.
Just how big a difference this will make is questionable beyond a single-week bounce. Winning that same Emmy didn’t do much for “The Office” after taking it home in 2006 (it dropped this past season). “Cheers” earned the 1984 Emmy after a disastrous first season in the ratings and subsequently climbed to the top of the charts, but the launch of “The Cosby Show” that year might be partly to blame.
What remains fairly baffling is how a series as consistently clever and funny as “30 Rock” can at the same time be so monumentally rejected. One easy answer, of course, is the critical disconnect with the audience mainstream when it comes to a situation comedy production technique considered infinitely more cinematic than the more traditional set-up/set-up/joke, four-camera variety.
According to TVGuide, NBC’s BIONIC WOMAN has finally recast the deaf (still?) sister of Jaime Sommers.
Robin Sparkles dirty little sister from Canada on How I Met Your Mother is the new sibling on the NBC sure to be mega-hit. LUCY HALE will take over the role from Arrested Developments Ann, Egg, Mae Whitman.
This casting news doesn’t make me shiver like yesterday’s casting of Isaiah Washington.
**UPDATE - According to Ausiello’s TCA Blog, the sister will no longer be deaf and she’s suddenly a big computer nerd as well.
Here we go gang, the shows are gearing up to begin filming and the networks are beginning to tinker with their new fall pilots. So far this week we’ve learned of three recasts and while some of it is old news, I thought I’d bring you the latest.
PRIVATE PRACTICE:
Remember how excited everyone was to see the new Grey’s Anatomy spin-off? Remember how excited everyone was to see an Alias alum finding yet another show? Remember watching the quasi-pilot and finding zero chemistry between said Alias alum and the shows uber star Kate Walsh? Yeah, no need to worry any more because ABC has recast the role of Naomi Bennett. While I love me some Evil Francie, Merrin Dungey just didn’t seem to work in that Grey’s episode. She was angry and stilted and a little too cute to be backup for Addison. For all the scoop and to see who’s replacing Francie, head on over to GiveMeMyRemote.com
MOONLIGHT:
This is great news for all the fans of Veronica Mars and the shirtless Jason Dohring! The old geezer role of Josef, who was originally played by a man in his 60s I believe. To go for the girls and gays, they obviously went for JDoh. Dohring will play Josef, an ancient vampire who is confidante to Mick (the main character). Unlike Mick, the eternally young, wealthy and mischievous Josef relishes his immortality. So basically its Logan Echolls with fangs!
BIONIC WOMAN:
NBC’s super strong fall pilot BIONIC WOMAN is in the midst of a mini-retooling. Jamie Sommers has a deaf sister Becca played by Arrested Development’s Anne, who? Anne, who? Oh her… Anyhoo, they’ve decided to go in a different direction with the sister and current actress Mae Whitman is out. No word on who’s next or if the sister will even be deaf any longer. Stay tuned.
TV Podcast 10: Ducky and GMMR strap on their tankinis, floaties, and hit the pool to tackle the chaos of the summer television schedule in the sweltering heat.
Shows we’re watching:Age of Love, Top Chef, The Next Food Network Star, Kathy Griffin’s D-List, The Closer, Rescue Me, Traveler and obviously So You Think You Can Dance.
Shows we’re looking forward to: The return of Big Brother 8 and the premiere of Burn Notice.
Then we hit the news and crazy ass Isaiah Washington, Heroes casting, the return of Sark, Nip/Tuck, 24’s Female President, and we give big bear hugs to Kelly Clarkson. Oh yeah, and we talk The Office cast on the big screen.
Have a question for Ducky and GMMR? There are a couple ways to contact us:
Free Voice Mail (Comments/Questions):
This is Dan and Kathie’s favorite method of contact because it allows us to hear from you and we use these messages live on our podcast to answer your burning television questions. It’s FREE and you don’t have to do anything but click RECORD BY PHONE on the box below and it will walk you through how to contact us!
It’s super easy and free to leave us a message:
Step 1: Click on “Record by Phone”
Step 2: Dial the number shown and enter the four digit code when prompted
Step 3: Leave a message
Step 4: Listen to our next podcast to see if we answered your question
While I can’t write a full review of NBC’s new Fall show Bionic Woman, I can tell you that it rocks incredibly hard and kicks some major frakkin’ ass!
Bionic Woman lives up to every expectation I had for it. Coming from David Eick, one of the geniuses behind Battlestar Galactica, I knew it would more than likely be a slam dunk and seriously… it is!
Yes Katee Sackhoff is in the pilot and yes she is amazingly hardcore and badass but I’m happy to report that she is not the only BSG’er in the mix. Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol) and Baltar’s Lawyer, Romo Lampkin (actor Mark Sheppard) are also involved. We can only hope that with the end of BSG in sight, more and more of our favorites from Galactica will jump over to Bionic Woman. Know who else is in the show? Ann (Who?) Egg, er Ann from Arrested Development.
I will quickly say this, mark my words… Michelle Ryan will be a huge star after this show blasts off. She’s incredibly beautiful, soft, sweet, and swift with the ass whoopin’. Geeks everywhere will be wetting themselves for her. You go girl!
Click here to see some sneak peek Bionic Woman videos and let the legions of fans begin uniting.
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