US TV

An archive of articles about US television programmes and production.

News

Manchild remake’s cast gets even better

10 November 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

James PurefoyAs mentioned yesterday, Showtime is remaking the Beeb’s Manchild, in which 50-something men acted like 20-somethings; the slight change is that it’s going to be about 40-somethings. John Corbett, of Northern Exposure and Sex and the City, was the only name attached to it at the time, but now we have a few new cast members.

Kevin Smith, director of Clerks and Silent Bob himself, is to play Paul, an angry divorced guy. And because all US shows now need at least one British cast member, James Purefoy is to take on the Nigel Havers role of the original show. It should be interesting, at the very least.

US TV

Silly place names in Prison Break

9 November 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

The Prison Break producers and writers are clearly amusing themselves no end with their choice of place names. Now, “Gila” in New Mexico is only mildly amusing – Gila monsters being not that exciting, but they do have funny names.

Gila

Trinidad in Colorado? I can think of more Caribbean-esque places.

Trinidad

But “Dinosaur, Nebraska”? They’re having a laugh, now.

Dinosaur

While I was gone…

9 November 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

…the following exciting things happened:

  • Happy Hour and Eamonn Holmes’ game show The Rich List appear to have been cancelled. It’s not official yet, though. That’s mighty impressive for our Eamonn, since Fox only aired The Rich List once.
  • 20 Good Years has also been shot in the head and buried in the back garden where, hopefully, the neighbours won’t find it. Surprisingly, for a show clearly intended for the over-60s market, the reason for its execution was lack of success in the 18-49 demographic.
  • The wonderful Dexter has been picked up for a second season. Yey!
  • Studio 60 has been picked up for a full season. Half a yey: it’s getting better, but it’s still not there yet, as far as I’m concerned. Find some more targets to be funny about except Christians, Aaron Sorkin. When even the characters start complaining that the show’s sole target for satire is Christianity, you know you need to start thinking about other things to avoid becoming a one-note show.
  • John Corbett is to appear in a US version of the Beeb’s Manchild. That appears to be a slight format change, since the original, which starred Nigel Havers, Anthony Head, Don Warrington and Ray Burdis, was about men in their 50s.
  • David Tennant is ‘cagey’ about whether he’ll commit to another series of Doctor Who after the next one.
  • British actress Lena Headey is to play Sarah Connor in Terminator spin-off series The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Really, you just can’t move for Brits in US shows these days.
  • Men in Trees has been picked up for a whole season and given Six Degrees’ time slot. I knew I should have waited till the fifth episode before dropping it. Damn. The latter show isn’t coming back till January at the earliest. Seeing as I stopped watching it in the middle of the last episode, thanks to near-terminal boredom, that’s not too upsetting.
  • Jericho is to emulate Lost and take a 12-week hiatus before returning in February. The aim is to avoid re-runs, which can spell death in the ratings for serialised dramas.
  • The Nine, which I said from the beginning was rubbish but no-one else seemed to believe me, is getting duller by the week and looks like it’s not long for this world.
  • NBC is to remake The IT Crowd.
  • Martin Scorsese is to make television shows. Maybe.

It’s all go when I’m away, isn’t it?

US TV

Review: The State Within

3 November 2006 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

In the UK: Thursdays, BBC1, 9pm
In the US: BBC America. Premieres in 2007

Here’s new: a co-prod (I want to say cod-prod, but won’t) between BBC America and BBC1. Whatever next? BBC Scotland and BBC Factual? BBC Knowledge and BBC Sport?

Anyway, here’s a show I had high hopes for. Good cast: Jason Isaacs (Brotherhood), Lennie James (Jericho), Sharon Gless (Cagney and Lacey). An interesting premise: a terrorist attack and the UK and US governments’ response to it plus a great big conspiracy underneath the surface.

But tarnation. It was mostly pants.

Continue reading “Review: The State Within”

Channel 4 might stop buying US dramas

3 November 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Once upon a time, Channel 4 was well known for being the home of quality US dramas – and rubbish US dramas, so notorious is probably a better word to pick. But with Lost having slipped through its fingers – to a sour grapes Channel 4 chorus of “Well, it wasn’t very good anyway, the ratings were dropping and we didn’t want it any more so you can keep it Sky One!” – Channel 4’s acquisitions head Jeff Ford is pondering whether the network can even afford to buy US shows any more:

“Acquisitions always used to be there (in our schedules) because they enabled us to afford to do other (more expensive) things,” Ford said. “If they get more expensive, we are going to have to say goodbye to them.”

Hmm. Won’t that put you out of a job, Jeff? For some reason, I missed the point in Channel 4 history when Desmonds was more expensive to make than Friends. Perhaps a bit of history rewriting in order to get a better deal out of the US networks? Some might well argue that Channel 4 used to be chock full of US shows because they got good ratings and were better than a lot of the rubbish that Channel 4 used to put out.

But if not, sounds like we can anticipate more Big Brother and cobblers like NY:LON in our C4 future then.