M2tv

PBS Pulls Out of TCA Tour, Citing Talent Reluctance; Likelihood of Press Tour Now "very low"

After weeks of indicating they were committed to the Winter Press Tour, PBS abruptly cancelled yesterday, "citing reluctance of the talent to participate" said Dave Walker, Television Critics Association (TCA) President and critic for the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

In an glum assessment of the situation, Walker warned members by email that the "likelihood of a TV Tour occurring if the strike is still on is now very low."

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY

MGM Resurrects Dead Like Me

MGM Studios just finished wrapping a Dead Like Me direct to DVD movie, revealed MGM's Senior Executive Vice President Finance and Corporate Development Charlie Cohen during a chat at the SCI FI Channel/Entertainment Weekly Comic-Con party.

Cohen, who oversees the studio’s new Home Entertainment Productions division along with the studio’s Stargate franchise, said the movie would be released in "about a year." He also discussed cast changes and said the studio is "open" to producing more movies and even bringing the series back for another television run.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY

AMC's Mad Men Debuts to Critical Kudos

AMC's Mad Men -- a series set in a Manhattan ad agency circa 1960 -- launches tonight at 10 p.m. The critical buzz appears to be almost entirely positive.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY

CLICK TO HEAR JEFF GOLDBLUM'S BAND PLAY A JAZZY VERSION OF THE BONANZA THEME (from the AMC/Television Critics Assocation launch party for Mad Men, held at the Friar's Club).

Download goldblumbonanza.wav (12609.0K)

TNT's Saving Grace: Strong Southern Women Rule

CLICK HERE TO READ PART ONE OF THIS STORY

Part II

Miller returned to her faith after working on a show that was clearly agony for her. "It took me back on my knees," she said ruefully, "I can't tell you what it was but it was a horrible experience." A small cluster of press pestered her for an answer but she graciously fended them off. "I'm not going to tell you where it was," she kept repeating.

Saving Grace is a character-driven cop show. It's the anti-CSI. "It's not about a maggots eating a face off," asserted Miller, "it's not about that crap. It's about this woman. We're gonna go deep."

(Thank you, Lord!! I'm fed-up with that crap, too.)

The pilot slows down a little due to the exposition. Miller had a lot to accomplish in forty-five minutes or so. The episode is essential viewing because so much of the series is established in this one hour. By the end, we find out why Grace wallows in her self-destructive behaviors. What will be especially interesting going forward is Grace's linkage to a death row prisoner. It's a plot twist that gives the series additional depth and complexity.

Another stroke of genius is the setting - Oklahoma City. Few Americans have ever visited. It just doesn't bubble up to the top of the list as a favorite vacation spot. (TNT's attention may change all that.) This is the viewers' chance to visit occasionally by remote. One scene, filmed at the memorial dedicated to the victims of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, is beautifully shot in golden Autumn (or winter) light. It's a quiet tribute to those who died.

Watching that scene, I realized suddenly that the Vietnam Memorial is fixed in our consciousness but I can hardly recall seeing film images of the Oklahoma memorial. Surprisingly, neither could my news-hound husband, nor my neighbors.

For Miller, the bombing is personal, very personal, and immediate. "I knew people in that building...a good friend of mine was out of the office that day. She lost 35 people she worked with," said Miller during the TCA panel.

The tragedy is not forgotten in Saving Grace. At a shooting range, Grace and her nephew imagine that Timothy McVeigh is their target and they nail him square in the forehead.

"I'm sick of that part of the country being called the fly-over states, " added Miller, "There are a lot of great stories to tell from that part of the country."

Unfortunately, few scenes were actually shot on location in Oklahoma City - only the memorial and stadium scenes. Some were shot in Calgary, Canada. Miller said to me personally that she hopes to film more on location in Oklahoma next year, "if there is a next year" because of the rich setting and the interesting characters that could be tapped.

Still, for all its appeal, I wasn't 100% hooked on Saving Grace when the closing credits rolled on the pilot. I was fence sitting, unsure if the series could hold my attention for the long term. It's during the second episode that the series begins to pick up steam. I highly recommend that viewers invest in the pilot plus one.

Hopefully, Saving Grace will eventually be shot on location. And I do think there will be second season. I'll be very surprised if this series isn't renewed. It's a show that transcends the blue state/red state divide, and that's probably a metaphor for Nancy Miller, too. What the series lacks is the authenticity that can only be a fully realized by location immersion. Nevertheless, even without the extra oomph of cool location shots, Amazing Grace is still good and decent television.

Saving Grace premieres Monday, July 23, at 10 p.m. Pacific/Eastern and at 9 p.m. Central

Torchwood at TCA: Barrowman Charms

Television Critics Association/Los Angeles

Yesterday's Torchwood/BBC America panel was only slightly less rambunctious than the Jekyll session when writer-creator Steven Moffat cheerfully slagged NBC over the American version of Coupling. John Barrowman, the Torchwood lead, seemed to relax as the panel progressed.

Torchwood, a spin-off of the enormously popular British Dr. Who series, is a Cardiff Wales-based crime fighting unit that battles sewer-dwelling aliens. Barrowman plays Captain Jack Harkness, a cheeky character on Who that takes a serious turn on Torchwood.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS POST ON MY MULTICHANNEL BLOG.

Rob Owen Predicts Uncomfortable HBO TCA Panel

HBO will face off with television critics during the network's upcoming Television Critics Association panel -- but some are bristling in advance. Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette critic and TCA prez, has landed in LA and is already reporting in.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY!

Channel Slumming and Why Vassar Girls Shunned The Procedurals 2

A few days ago Variety's John Dempsey reported increasing anxiety among the cable channels who rely heavily on off-net procedurals.

"Without a Trace failed to score with mass audiences," said Dempsey. Since the Without a Trace launch a year ago in the 7p slot on TNT, the series has averaged only 1.73 million viewers. 60% of the show's viewers are over the age of 50. Cold Case has also dropped by close to a third in total viewers and in key demos.

Variety also reported last year that TNT was nervous about a Law and Order ratings slump.

Says Dempsey: "The industry is citing the declining fortunes of off-network procedurals as the reason cable networks are reluctant to pony up for off-net series including Criminal Minds, Bones, Numbers and Boston Legal."

One of the problems not addressed in Dempsey's article: the excessive, gratuitous violence against women. During the Summer 2005 Television Critics Association press tour, critics cornered CBS' Criminal Minds producers for featuring a caged woman and an "anger excitation rapist." Not long after, USA Today ran a story in which viewers complained about CSI's kinky subject matter.

(Caveat: it's too bad that CBS' Numbers' reputation is stained by association. Numbers is relegated to the Friday night graveyard, so the series is underexposed and there might be quite a lot of viewers still to be tapped. The premise is unique, the character development is appealing and the series doesn't engage in the same level of graphic violence.)

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST!

Barnhart to Cable: Grow Spine; Carry Al Jazeera English

Just ahead of the Fourth of July, Aaron Barnhart, the Kansas City Star television critic, spanked cable providers for their reluctance to carry Al Jazeera English. "Rejected by every major cable company in America, Al Jazeera English is an ambitious attempt to redefine television news. There's absolutely no reason we shouldn't be watching it," asserts Aaron.

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE STORY

Koppel: It's a Travesty.

time: late, very late, due to typepad glitches;

Ted Koppel appeared before television critics this morning via satellite from Guantanamo Bay where he was shooting Security and Liberty, the first special in the Koppel on Discovery series. The three-hour long program debuts on the eve of 9/11 and examines the "delicate issues at the nexus of protecting our national security and preserving our civil liberties," said Discovery Net President Billy Campbell as he introduced Koppel.

On stage during Discovery Nets' January '06 presentation, a testy Koppel snapped at a respected critic who dared ask a fairly innocuous and well-researched question. But this time - with a 15-knot wind ruffling his gray hair and flanked by a half-dozen fatigue-clad military personnel holding a white canopy overhead - Koppel kept his temper in check.

Koppel's concerns about ratings and demographic pressures on news divisions echoed those of Dan Rather, who appeared at yesterday's (Tues.) HDNet presentation. "When it comes to news coverage we have an additional responsibility," Koppel said, "and that is to tell people what they need to know, what they ought to know. And it is our business to make that as easily understandable and as interesting as possible, but not to avoid subjects simply because it drives away younger viewers."

Koppel also slammed networks for cutting budgets and shuttering news bureaus.

"It was hoped as a consequence of 9/11 that networks would focus in again on foreign news. that is not the case. Our network news divisions simply do not have the corps of foreign correspondents that they had twenty to twenty five years ago. Now it is done far more by parachuting in an anchor or some correspondent who is based in London.

What we don't have but what we need more than we have ever needed before in the history of television is young, aggressive correspondents who are willing to spend two, three, even ten years in a certain region getting to know the language, getting to know the culture, getting to know the people. I don't think there is a commercial network around that has a permanent correspondent based in India.

I'm not taking a cheap shot here. I'm suggesting that India one way or another is destined to become one of the most important countries in the world, if it's not already. It is, after all, the world's largest single democracy. It's economy is growing by leaps and bounds. It's needs and demands for energy are going to come into direct conflict w/ our own.

For this, of all times, for network news divisions to feel they can't afford to have active news bureaus in some of the most important overseas locations, I think its a travesty and it's something that we're going to be paying for for years to come."