US TV

An archive of articles about US television programmes and production.

US TV

Review: Three Moons Over Milford

9 August 2006 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Three Moons Over Milford

In the US: Sundays, ABC Family, 8pm

In the UK: Not yet acquired

What would you do if you knew the world was going to end? Maybe not today. But maybe some time next week if the Nigerians are to be believed. Or in six weeks if the Germans are right. But some time soon and with absolute certainty, anyway.

Would you give up your life and go on a round the world trek? Would you throw your inhibitions to the wind? Track down that lost love and make a go of it? Or would you just get on with your life and hope for the best?

Three Moons Over Milford tries to answer this question by dwelling on the inhabitants of Milford, a small town in Vermont.

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US TV

Preview: Kidnapped 1×1 (US: NBC; UK: Channel 4/E4)

7 August 2006 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Kidnapped

In the US: NBC, Wednesdays 10/9c. Starting September 20th.
In the UK: Acquired by Channel 4/E4 for transmission in 2007

Until now, NBC has more or less resisted the temptation to steal other networks’ ideas for programming. Until now.

Here’s its attempt at 24. It’s actually not half bad. They’ve captured (I’m good with me puns, aren’t I?) most of the things that make Fox’s Jack Bauer power hour so good: the tension; the serial aspect, with each episode following on from the previous; the “police procedural” tone that in no way comes close to the actual way police do work; and the utterly ridiculous plots. But it doesn’t quite have the edge required to make it unmissable.

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Stephen Hawking: physicist, writer and TV presenter

7 August 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

US network ABC is working on a new sci-fi anthology series called Masters of Science Fiction. Doesn’t sound too promising, does it? After all, we’ve already had The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Night Gallery, et al. This one promises to be different.

Number one interesting point: it’s going to be a series of adaptations of some actual, decent SF authors, such as Harlan Ellison, Robert Heinlein and Robert Sheckley.

Number two: It’s going to be hosted by Stephen Hawking. Now, okay, Stephen’s already done a little bit of acting work on The Simpsons and Star Trek: The Next Generation. But TV hosting? Don’t you have to have been in the Big Brother house for at least a week before you’re allowed to host a show these days?

Reminds you just how much fun 80s ‘hardware’ shows were

7 August 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Ah, Airwolf, Street Hawk: I do like to go on about them, I know. But there’s never really been their like since and they were such an important part of the 80s (for some people anyway).

Here are a couple of YouTube videos to illustrate the fun. The first is from early in Airwolf‘s pilot episode. It’s a live weapons demo principally designed to show off the helicopter to one of the Senators in charge of defence budgets. As always with early Airwolf, the sting is in the tail. It also features the late, great David Hemmings being delightfully evil and English.

Enjoy it – it never got this good again, thanks to CBS wanting the second season onwards to be more family-oriented. I ask you, how do you make a programme about a war helicopter family oriented?

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