US TV

An archive of articles about US television programmes and production.

All the news I can write before I have to leg it for the train

6 December 2006 Rob Buckley 11 Comments
News

ABC adapting a British show that hasn’t even been made yet

5 December 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Life On Mars



Here’s odd. ABC is creating a new show, Ordinary Joe, centred on a guy who has a choice of two women to go out with. Twelve years later, the show picks up the plot. But rather than just one plot, it picks up three: what if he’d gone out with his secret love, what if he’d gone out with the woman chasing after him, and what if he’d stayed single.

Sounds cool, doesn’t it? It should be: it’s British! (Cue tuneless rendition of the National Anthem which slowly falls apart as we realise it’s an ITV show… but picks up again when we hear it’s from Kudos, who make Spooks, Hustle and Life on Mars!… but then ends disastrously and with potential deaths when we learn Caleb Ransom, the creator of The Outsiders, is writing it).

The curious thing about this British show is that it hasn’t been made yet. The series is still being developed as we speak. We’ve now reached the point where we’re selling series formats before they’re even shown to be a success. Still, it’s a good idea. Let’s see which is the better version.

Talking of Kudos, incidentally, my old mag, Dreamwatch, has an exclusive, it claims: Kudos is allegedly creating a follow-up series to Life on Mars set in the 80s. Called Ashes to Ashes, it will feature some of the Life on Mars characters later on in their careers and will air in a 9pm slot in 2008.

News

News from yesterday

5 December 2006 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Sarah Jane AdventuresReading countless RSS feeds and news alerts so you don’t have to…

  • The first Sarah Jane Adventures publicity still is available. Graham at OTT has a run-down of the first episode, which is being broadcast this Christmas. [via Outpost Gallifrey]
  • The Independent has an interview with Sophia Myles, covering her life, Dracula and going out with David Tennant. Apparently, she keeps a Doctor Who action figure next to her bed to remind herself of him. [via LiveJournal]
  • The world has gone Masi Oka-mad. And why not? You have to admire an actor who can talk about 5-tuples, don’t you? The star of Scrubs and Heroes is interviewed in the New York Times (free registration required). Classic quote: ‘“My agent read the script and said, ‘My God, I’ve found the role,’ ” Mr. Oka said. “I mean, how many actors are fluent in Japanese, well-trained in comedy and have abundant American TV experience? I felt pretty good going in. I felt like, wow, my niche market. It was like, if this isn’t it, what is?”’ Meanwhile, he’s going to be ‘guest-hosting’ Studio 60.
  • Still with Heroes, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a chat with Zachary Quinto, who plays Sylar.
  • Again, still with Heroes, we experience the somewhat worrying news that it’s the number 10 primetime network series among kids 2-11. Woah. There’s a viewing demographic that includes two and three year olds? And Heroes, with Internet porn queens, people’s brains being scooped out and heroin addicts is something parents want their kids to watch? Fair enough, but the creators are turning down the graphic stuff as a result. Curse you, children!
  • Back with Studio 60, The West Wing‘s Kristin Chenoweth, who isn’t actually in Studio 60 but was the basis for the Harriet Hayes character, explains (free registration required) what it’s like to have an ex-boyfriend base a TV character on you.

Lost moments are losing it

4 December 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

This year, US networks have had a change of policy about how they air their big shows. Rather than do what they’ve always done and air a few new episodes, then some repeats, then some more new episodes, then some repeats, ad infinitum, they’ve gone for two blocks of episodes: one before Christmas, one after Christmas, with a stonking great big gap in between.

In part, they can do this because of the Internet. Even with a two-month wait, shows like Jericho are pumping out extra content on their web sites to keep people interested. Lost is also doing this with “Lost moments”, clips from the next season that are designed to whet the appetite of viewers.

The trouble is, they’re not very good and lots of fans are p’ed off. After all, two and a bit seasons in and the distinct feeling is that

  1. Lost‘s producers are making it up as they go along
  2. That’s two and a bit years invested in something whose denouement in another two and a half years’ time isn’t going to be very interesting
  3. We’re never going to find out what half the good stuff means.

Valid concerns or not, the Lost moments don’t seem to be helping things. Judge for yourself why this might be after the jump. Note, if you’ve not seen any of season three yet, there are some slight spoilers in terms of who’s survived the finale of season two; if you have seen season three or are currently watching it on Sky One, there are no real spoilers, which is partly why the fans are annoyed. For my part, I will say the moments are clearly leading somewhere, although as with all things Lost-ian, I suspect we’ll have to wait till the last one to find out if it was worth it.

Continue reading “Lost moments are losing it”

Weekend news

4 December 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

A few of the stories that broke over the weekend: