Everyone knows the debt the Santos storyline on The West Wing owes to Barack Obama. But what would the titles of The West Wing look like with the incoming Obama administration?
Oh look, here’s a handy YouTube vid to illustrate:
Articles by Rob Buckley
Friday’s NBC planning and pilot pickup news
Film
- Warner Bros and Fox make deal over Watchmen
Books
- Ructions at Asterix HQ
Art
- Exhibition of rare Constables at the National Portrait Gallery
- Czechs apologise to Bulgaria over toilet depiction
- Bacon portrait ‘Man in Blue VI’ likely to get £6m
Theatre
- Complicit premiere postponed
British TV
- Deadline of March for Gavin and Stacey scriptsd
US TV
- The Office and 30 Rock renewed, plus future NBC scheduling plans
- NBC looking to Bryan Fuller to rescue Heroes, fourth season still probable…
- …sees quality, cutting edge shows as way to rescue itself…
- …it won’t cut back on pilots …
- …and it still has hopes for Lipstick Jungle
- Krod Mandoon clips and interviews
- Hugh Bonneville likely to join Legally Mad
- Four more cast members for Stargate: Universe
- Fox and CBS pick up Maggie Hill, Human Target and Tick Tock, while TNT orders five new episodes of Leverage
- Drop Dead Diva picked up by Lifetime
- CBS’s plans for John Mayer, Moonlight‘s Alex O’Loughlin and the NCIS spinoff
- Rhea Seehorn to join James Van Der Beek in Eva Adams
- Eddie Falco guesting on 30 Rock
- Last episodes of Pushing Daisies, Dirty Money and Eli Stone postponed until summer
- Bye, bye Lana?
- Ashley Jensen not quitting Ugly Betty
News
Big Finish for 2009
To save you the hassle of listening to the 40-odd minutes of Big Finish podcast that is their preview of 2009, I thought I’d give you the precised highlights of what you can look forward to this year in their Doctor Who range.
The big draws are, unfortunately, subscriber bonuses, both of them starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and also featuring, among others, Jemima Rooper (Lost in Austen) and Matt Di Angelo (Hustle). I say unfortunately, because at the moment, there’s not a lot really drawing me in – you’ll see why – which means to get to the good stuff, you’ll have to buy everything else, too. Ho hum.
Thursday’s two Merlins news
Doctor Who
Film
- Emily Blunt to play Black Widow in Iron Man 2?
- Gore Verbinski to direct savings swindle drama
- Jim Sheridan to direct Black Mass
- Paramount developing techno-thriller Daemon
- Clips from Push
- Johnny Depp working on Fear and Loathing sequel?
British TV
- 24 gets good ratings
Theatre
- National to premiere Alan Bennett, Terry Pratchett and Hanif Kureishi plays in 2009…
- …and beam performances into cinemas
US TV
- 1980s Gossip Girl prequel planned
- Idris Elba to appear in six episodes of The Office
- James Marsters to appear on Numb3rs
- Chevy Chase to guest star on Chuck for three episodes
- Watch out Merlin: Tudors to end at season four, to be followed by young Arthur and Merlin in Camelot?
- Jericho movie in development
- Swingtown cancelled
- Jack Bauer to die in movie after season eight?
US TV
Review: 24 – 7×1-7×4
In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, Fox
In the UK: Mondays, 9pm, Sky One
Sometimes a year off can be a boon. Like a gap year or backpacking round Europe, it can give you new perspectives and distance on things you used to take for granted.
24‘s been stuck on the TGV of TV for over a year now, its last season cancelled by the writers’ strike, with only an anaemic and turgid TV movie to keep us going since then. But as this four-episode, two-night intro to the new season shows, it’s come back a whole lot more vigorous than when it left and it’s brought a bunch of old friends with it.