US TV

An archive of articles about US television programmes and production.

News

Tuesday’s desperately romantic news

3 February 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Robert Downey, Jude Law and Rachel McAdams in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes

Film

Art

Radio

  • Mark Heap to star as an alien, with Maxine Peake, Paul Ritter and Susan Jameson, in Radio 4 sci-fi play

British TV

  • Channel 4 freezes pay and bonuses
  • Rafe Spall and Tom Hollander join Aidan Turner, Zoe Tapper and Samuel Barnett in Desperate Romantics
  • Prepare for lots of dramas about Africa

US TV

US TV

For Toby: the mysterious disappearing Ali Larter in the Heroes Superbowl commercial

2 February 2009 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

I wasn’t going to do this (honest) but since Toby has tried to spot Ali Larter in the Heroes Superbowl commercial and can’t – because she’s been edited out – let’s play a game of Spot the Larter then. First, count the number of Heroes in the huddle at the start of the promo:

Heroes Huddle

Six blokes, right? Now, let’s have a look at the break after their huddle:

Heroes + Ali

Six blokes and… oh wait, who’s that on the left? Then they head off to play. Six blokes again:

Heroes of the Superbowl

Then there’s a line up: again, who’s that on the far end?*

HeroesLineUp.jpg

They play, Peter throws long and who’s that in the middle of the field, waiting to catch?

Tracy goes long

But someone else gets there first:

Heroes interception

Here’s the behind the scenes interview to show she was there for the filming and you can see some some of the footage she shot for the ad, And here’s the ad so you can watch for yourself. Sigh. People are going to think I’m obsessed… Curse you Tobes.

*PS Can you tell I have no idea about American football or am I bluffing well?

UPDATE: In case you weren’t convinced by that line-up pic, here are two official promo pictures supplied by NBC – look to the top left:

NBC Superbowl pic

And in the middle at the top:

Another NBC Superbowl pic

The Heroes, Chuck and Medium Superbowl promos

2 February 2009 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

The US Superbowl is a traditional time for Americans to get together, eat snacks, party and watch lots of commercials that are occasionally interrupted by some football. Some Superbowl commercials are classics that live in history – can you believe it’s been 25 years since Ridley Scott directed the legendary first ever advert for the Apple Mac way back in 1984?

Most don’t though. Oh well.

But with a vast, near-captive audience, NBC gets the chance to

  1. up promo rates and still show lots of exclusive ads (see today’s news for some movie spots)
  2. promote its own programmes

Here, for instance, is a great big sing- and-dance-a-long involving the casts of Chuck, Heroes and Medium. Yes, Yvonne Strahovski can do a good high kick.

As well as that combo, Heroes got not just one but two dedicated promos: a standard “clips from the next episode” promo

But as pointed out on Thursday, there was also a specially shot promo with various Heroes playing football against NFL players – and having to use their powers to stand a chance of winning.

Me being me, I can’t help but notice that someone who was there for the filming and appeared to have shot some footage for the ad, didn’t appear in the final thing at all except if you look really, really hard between 0:17 to 0:20 . Sigh.

Monday’s snowed-in Superbowl news

2 February 2009 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Doctor Who

Film

Theatre

British TV

US TV

Friday’s “I have the power!” news

30 January 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

Film

Art

Theatre

British TV

US TV

  • Lauren Graham pilot gets a green light
  • CBS greenlights three new drama pilots
  • Promo for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles promises fresh start
  • Life on Mars‘ ratings not good