The West Wing

Friday news joy

9 February 2007 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Did you hear? It’s the weekend tomorrow.

Doctor Who

  • A special Comic Relief comic BeanoMax will feature the Daleks and David Tennant, as well as Jonathan Ross and Jamie Oliver.

Film

British TV

  • There’s a German version of Life on Mars on the way. If you look carefully, there’s a spoiler in one of the article’s quotes that gives away the entire reason why Sam is in 1973. I don’t think he meant to say what he did…
  • Sky is planning a new, free digital terrestrial TV service. Only problem: it doesn’t work with Freeview boxes. Sounds attractive, no?
  • A preview of new ITV drama Instinct
  • Steve Coogan is going to host a Classic Coogan weekend on UKTV G2
  • There’s more Secret Millionaire on the way [subscription required]

US TV

Events

Morning, you

5 February 2007 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Flakes are back

Have a nice weekend?

Film and comics

  • Joss Whedon’s off the Wonder Woman movie.
  • Ghostbusters 3 is still happening. Both Dan Ackroyd and Bill Murray are up for it. But it’s going to be all-cg.
  • A new version of Barbarella is in the works.
  • Joel Schumacher wants to film Sandman.
  • The Flash has a new director.

Commercials

  • The Cadbury’s Flake ads are coming back on Friday. Directed by Jack “son of Ridley” Scott, they will focus “on the unique way of eating a Cadbury Flake: peeling back the wrapper and enjoying the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate in the world.” Ooh, top euphemism.

Events

British TV

US TV

Events

Wednesday news

3 January 2007 Rob Buckley 15 Comments

Sarah Jane with pictures of Harry and K9

?ɂǨ la recherche du temps perdus.

Doctor Who

Art


Film

US TV

  • NBC has greenlit three new pilots: Fort Pit is a cop show from the Rescue Me team, who claim for some reason that TV is missing a cop show at the moment; Chuck is an action-comedy about 20-something spies, in the vein of Grosse Pointe Blank; and David Eicke’s Bionic Woman remake has been given the go-ahead as well.
  • There are a few BSG, Heroes and The OC spoilers over on Ask Auriello, although nothing staggering. The rumours of misery on the Medium set are far more interesting.
  • USA Network has picked up Mary Sunshine, starring Murder One/The West Wing‘s Mary McCormack. It’s about a US Marshal “who tries to balance her intense job at the witness-protection program with her equally intense and amusingly dysfunctional personal life”.
  • CBS is doing a nifty job of promoting Liev Schreiber’s arrive on CSI:
    Who is Keppler

Top 10 films and TV shows of the year? Let’s meme!

12 December 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

The American Film Institute publishes two top ten lists each year: the top 10 movies and the top 10 TV shows. This year’s has just come out. What do you think? And if they’re right, what does it say about 2006: a good year or a bad year?

AFI Movies of the Year

  • Babel
  • Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
  • The Devil Wears Prada
  • Dreamgirls
  • Half Nelson
  • Happy Feet
  • Inside Man
  • Letters From Iwo Jima
  • Little Miss Sunshine
  • United 93

AFI TV Programmes of the Year

  • Battlestar Galactica
  • Dexter
  • Elizabeth I
  • Friday Night Lights
  • Heroes
  • The Office
  • South Park
  • 24
  • The West Wing
  • The Wire

I think there are some good ones in the TV list, but it’s not been a great year for movies, by the looks of it.

Still, let’s meme. I can’t help out with the films list for once, since I doubt I’ve seen 10 films in the cinema this year (Casino Royale and The Prestige would both be on such a list, and Inside Man was all right, I s’pose). But here’s my pick of the top 10 shows of the year, in no particular order, with links to my various comments on them.

Ooh. By the looks of it, I must be the only person in the world who hasn’t written about how great Planet Earth is. Well, it is. That’s all that’s needed.

So there’s the meme: top 10 TV shows, top 10 films or both. Any channel, from any country of origin, any language, so long as they aired or were distributed in 2006 and weren’t a repeat/re-run.

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.