M2tv

AMC's Mad Men: It's Television Worth Living For

With the season two unveiling of Mad Men on Sunday, July 27, Executive producer/creator Matt Weiner cements his reputation as one of the smartest, most imaginative creatives working in television.

There is no Sophomore slump for this show set in a Madison Avenue ad agency - a stylish and multi-layered immersion in the early 1960's, just when the culture teeters on the cusp of upheaval.

Mad Men topped my 2007 list of television's best, followed by Dexter (a close second). In 2008, Mad Men still holds fast to the top spot so far.

Season two of Mad Men opens on perfect moment, perhaps the peak of the Camelot fantasy, pre-dating the Cuban Missile Crisis - Valentine's Day, 1962. It just happens to be the day when "three out of four television viewers tuned to CBS or NBC to watch a "A Tour of the White House" with Mrs. John F. Kennedy...."

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF MY REVIEW

'Stargate Atlantis' Season Five Premiere: A Summer Space Romp

Heading into its fifth season, launching July 11@10p., SCI FI Channel's Stargate Atlantis is enjoying something of a resurgence. The series concluded the previous year on a ratings upswing, and at some point during the upcoming season, the series will hit the landmark 100th episode.

The season five premiere, penned by executive producer Martin Gero, lets viewers bask in a happy place - at least for now. A little warmth? A happy resolution? What a unique concept. (Battlestar's Ron Moore: are you listening?)

Click here for more of the review

San Francisco Struts Its Pride and Bill O'Reilly Earns A Pink Brick

It's that time of year again - the annual LGBT Pride Celebration. Mayor Gavin Newsom raised the rainbow flag at City Hall on Thursday, and the 38th Annual LGBT Parade kicks off on Sunday, and the city struts its reputation for diversity and tolerance. BART is gearing up by adding extra trains to handle the crowds.

Buy this poster on sfpride.org

In the meantime, this year's receipient of the "pink brick award" from the LGBT community is none other than Fox News' Bill O'Reilly. Bill beat out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the dis-honor.

CLICK HERE for more on Bill's pink brick award.

Battlestar Mid-Season Finale Ratings Trend Down But Female Demographic Jumps

Last Friday, according to the network press release just in, SCI FI’s Battlestar Galactica mid-season finale episode, “Revelations,” scored a "1.4 Household rating, 1.8 million total viewers, 1.2 million Adults 25-54 and 1.2 million Adults 18-49*."

These numbers are down a bit from the season four averages to date.

For more Battlestar data, and demographics, click here.

It's Official: Adam Carolla Tapped to Host NBC's Iteration of 'Top Gear'

Word to the skeptics: former Man Show host Adam Carolla is hands down one of the funniest guys on the planet. The ad-libbing, wisecracking Carolla had television critics ROTFL a couple of years ago when TLC Network introduced The Adam Carolla Project. The network distributed a unique hammer which is a beer bottle opener/hammer combination. (The claw is reshaped into a bottle opener.)

I keep that item in my office. My guy friends love it.

Today, the following news was first reported by Jalopnik.com which also published a photo from the set.

NBC finally announced that Carolla will host the U.S. iteration of the hit U.K. series Top Gear. (Carolla chattered about it months ago on his radio show, however.) Filming begins this week on the pilot.

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Battlestar Galactica Meets Planet of The Apes

True to form, the Battlestar Galactica mid-season finale last Friday was predictably morose and wearing. Dark, dark and more dark. Every time I dare to tune in, someone's getting blown out of an airlock or...something. It's mho that Executive Producer Ron Moore needs to lighten up a little.

As the season closes midway, the Colonial Fleet finally locates Earth, the promised land. But the joy is short-lived - Shangri-la has been nuked and, apparently, abandoned. Think: Planet of The Apes.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

SCI FI Channel Summer '08 Line-Up: The Return of Fan Favorites

SCI FI Channel announced their summer line-up this morning.

Eureka and Stargate Atlantis will form the backbone of the network's summer evening scripted originals beginning July 29 and July 11, respectively.

Season three of Eureka, about a community of geniuses assembled by the government to conduct top-secret research, premieres Tuesday, July 29 @ 9p.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE!

Don't Miss: IFC's Original Documentary 'At The Death House Door'

Over the course of 13 years, Pastor Carroll Pickett, the death house chaplain in the infamous "Walls" prison unit in Huntsville, Texas, presided over 95 executions, including the world's first lethal injection.

Tomorrow (Thursday) night at 9pm IFC premieres their exceptional original documentary At The Death House Door. The film tracks Carroll Pickett's slow motion, 35-year journey from death penalty supporter to humble activist campaigning to end what he feels is a barbaric practice. (IFC Trailer, below)

Click here for more about At The Death House Door.

Weekend Internet Buzz: HIllary Invoked RFK Last March, Too

The following Hillary Clinton news started flying across the Internet last night. More stunning revelations about her RFK assassination remarks have re-surfaced.

So far, as of 2:30 PT today, some cable news networks are skating over the history surrounding this story. (ETA: MSNBC's Olbermann may have covered it in his rant last night but...sometimes Olbermann is so over-the-top I can't get past the heat.)

Yesterday, Clinton made a shockingly inappropriate remark to the Sioux City, South Dakota Argus Leader editorial board. Defending her decision to stay in the race, she invoked the June 1968 RFK assassination. Clinton then issued a wishy-washy apology to the Kennedys but she did not apologize to Obama for stoking everyone's worst fear - the assassination of the presumed first African-American presidential nominee.

However, Time Magazine reveals that Clinton also alluded to the RFK tragedy last March. It appears that Clinton's bizarre comments may actually be a scripted response to questions about her intention to stay in the race through June.

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DAVID COOK WINS AMERICAN IDOL (And Is Simon Cowell An Old Guy Who Doesn't Get It?)

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Holy Matrimony! California Supreme Court Strikes Down Ban on Gay Marriage

Weddings are always a sure fire way to lasso audiences during sweeps. Hollywood can now add perfectly legal gay California weddings (or should I say LGBT weddings) to their script checklist, along with tried and true ferry explosions and character deaths.

A few hours ago, the California Supreme Court struck down the ban on gay marriage and yes, there's dancing in the street here in San Francisco.

Other winning television marriages could include Luke and Noah, the young, angsty gay couple who have captured audience imagination on the daytime soap, As The World Turns.

ABC Network already took the big plunge anyway, last Sunday. During the season finale of ABC’s Brothers & Sisters gay characters Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty Wandell (Luke Macfarlane) tied the knot. The ceremony was the first of its kind between series regular characters on U.S. broadcast network television.

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Tom Sizemore on CSI: Miami. Reaper Renewed!

It's May sweeps, can you tell? Guest stars are popping like dandelions. And Tom Sizemore, star of Black Hawk Down and other feature films, shows up on CSI: Miami tonight.

Garett Maggart is also listed in the CSI: Miami guest cast for tonight's ep. Interesting. Maggart, a wild-haired young heartthrob at the time, co-starred in The Sentinel on the now defunct UPN, along with Richard Burgi who...

guest stars in this week's episode of Reaper on CW. (Tuesday, May 13, @9p.)

In other news, CW's Reaper appears poised for renewal!

ETA - yep, the word is in. Reaper gets a second season!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE!

Don't Miss HDNet's Surfwise, Tonight @9p

Tonight (Wednesday) at 9p (with an encore at 11p), HDNet unveils another exclusive “sneak preview” of a film in advance of the theatrical release. HDNet's Surfwise tracks the 50-year journey of surfing’s legendary Paskowitz family, led by their uncompromising, flawed father, Dorian.

In 1956, after years of insomnia and two failed marriages, Stanford graduate and physician Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz walked away from it all and embarked on an odyssey of self-discovery through surfing.

With his wife Juliette and their nine children stuffed into a 24-foot RV, Doc hunted waves on the beaches of Southern California, Hawaii, and Mexico and surfed relentlessly.

Click here for the full review, plus vids!

Support The Nuke Smooch. Call Procter & Gamble, 1-800-331-3774

Conservative groups are all bent out of shape over a gay kiss. Yeah, yeah. So what else is new?

We loved it!

Here's the delish smooch between one of daytime television's hottest couples - As The World Turns gay duo Luke and Noah, or "Nuke" as the fans like to call them. Luke and Noah are also daytime television's only gay couple.

Procter and Gamble Productions has set-up a hotline to take feedback. Click here for more info and to comment.

Everything I Know About Survival, I Learned by Watching Discovery Channel

I've learned a few things watching Discovery's survival series. First, that Leatherman tool (used by Survivorman's Les Stroud) I've been carrying around for years, and distributing as Christmas gifts to friends when I couldn't think of anything else to buy them, could save their life. Who knew!?

Disclaimer: this post is in no way meant to denigrate the manly men of Discovery, who are seriously cool - especially when balancing on helicopter skids 9,000 feet above Mexico's Copper Canyon, and/or throwing up after eating Moroccan goat testicles, urinating all over their shirts and wrapping it around their heads to stay cool, or playing their harmonicas in their lonely, makeshift shelters.

Click here to read more about the manly men of Discovery.