Hits And Misses
Maybe Sterling Cooper Should Do An Ad Campaign For 'Mad Men'
This past weekend Mad Men lead Jon Hamm did a stint hosting Saturday Night Live, and his intro poked funat the conundrum of the AMC show: It’s critically revered, the first basic-cable series to win an Emmy as best drama, yet relatively few people have seen it. In his SNL intro, Hamm alluded to Mad Men’s relative obscurity. The dark, handsome actor also said that when he tells people ...... Read More
Comments (1)Crashing the Post-Emmy Soirees
Forgive me for any typos or misspellings because I’ve just ended my evening of post-Emmy festivities. It’s 1:30 a.m. PST, and I’m jetlagged after coming to L.A. Saturday from New York. It’s been a busy night. The Governor’s Ball after the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony was held in the Los Angeles Convention Center, which was beautifully redecorated with ...... Read More
Comments (0)I Wanna Do Bad Things With You
I don’t know if HBO’s True Blood will be a hit, but it had me at hello with its opening credits. Alessandra Stanley, the TV critic for The New York Times went so far as to describe the show’s opening montage as “amazing, hallucinatory,” and suggested that the actual show didn’t live up to its introduction. The vampire opus True ...... Read More
Comments (17)FX’s New Vic Mackey Is A Woman
Cable’s given us a crop of 40-something female protagonists, flawed and antiheroic, in the past few years. Two of them have been police detectives, portrayed byHolly Hunter in Saving Grace and Kyra Sedgwick in The Closer, both on TNT. Hunter’s character is hard-drinking and promiscuous, sleeping with her married colleague and parading around naked in front of a window for her elderly ...... Read More
Comments (0)The TCA ‘Mad Men’ Set Visit: No, I Didn’t Steal Any Ashtrays
I’m not sure if Mad Men executive producer Matt Weiner was tongue-in-cheek joking or not when he asked TV critics touring the show’s set Tuesday not to walk off with any souvenirs. “Please be respectful of the set, and we say this to everyone who comes to visit: Don’t take anything,” Weiner told several busloads of writers assembled for the set visit. “Thi ...... Read More
Comments (0)Cable’s TCA Tour: From Toothless Dogs To Naked Men In a Locker Room
Beverly Hills, Calif.—After four long and busy days here in Beverly Hills, cable’s portion of the Television Critics Association is wrapping up. The event had its moments, to be sure. I admit that my eyes welled up when I saw the clip from WE tv’s The Locator, which is about a man who helps adopted people track down their blood relations. In the video, we were shown weepy men ...... Read More
Comments (0)Cable TCA Tour Lacks Some Big Guns This Year
TV writers—yours truly included—return to the Left Coast this week for the first Television Critics Association tour in a year where cable will kick off an event that normally takes place twice annually, in the winter and summer. The Writers Guild of America strike earlier this year not only hit Hollywood in the wallet, it put the kibosh on the January press tour, which had to be can ...... Read More
Comments (1)Google Stumbles During Ad-Research Dog-And-Pony Show
Note to Google guys: Do your homework before addressing an auditorium that’s packed with advertising-research executives. There were several cringe-worthy moments at the Advertising Research Foundation’s conference when Google was questioned about two of its media-buying initiatives, namely Google TV Ads and Google Ad Planner. Both Keval Desai, Google’s director of product man ...... Read More
Comments (0)Who Will OWN Up as CEO of Oprah’s Cable Network?
Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications are lining up the management team for the daytime diva’s new cable network, which will debut in the second half of next year—a reincarnation of Discovery Health Channel. The first shoe dropped yesterday, with the announcement that Robin Schwartz, president of Regency Television, had been appointed president of OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. ...... Read More
Comments (0)It’s a Chick Thing: 'Bridezillas' and 'Sex and the City'
I spent Tuesday morning literally in the heart of Times Square, on the island between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, alongside a 10-foot tall slice of wedding cake, decorated with more than 50 gallons of butter cream frosting. In a stunt celebrating the fifth season of Bridezillas, WE had 10 brides-to-be—clad in wedding dresses, white helmets, and sneakers—scamper up the giant sli ...... Read More
Comments (0)Charlie’s $1,500 Verdict: A Hollow Victory
I should have been a lawyer, working for Charlie Ergen and billing by the hour. I’d never have to worry about my credit cards bills or retirement fund again. Ergen, who chairs both Dish Network and his equipment company EchoStar, is known for his penchant for suing—and for being sued. I’m not exaggerating when I say I can’t keep up with all the litigation his compa ...... Read More
Comments (0)Throw it Up—I Mean Give It Up—For G4
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts must be proud. One of his networks, G4, appears poised to reach a new low in term of taste in programming with its new summer series, Hurl! The show’s very concept—inspired by viral videos—makes me want to hurl, i.e., throw up. But then I’m out of the network’s demo, which is young men, so what I think doesn’t matter. Here&# ...... Read More
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