As I mentioned in a previous post, "The Ex List" — premiering tonight — has parted ways with Diane Ruggiero, a very talented writer ("Veronica Mars") whom I credit with the good things in the series pilot. So I don't expect it to live up to the quality of tonight's telecast. That said, it is fairly good, and there's a nice turn by Eric Balfour. And some of the content, as I mentioned before, may have you either giggling or googling. Also, look for the nice promo set to Queen's "Somebody to Love" over at CBS.com.
Maybe I should say, his favorite movies that are in the TCM catalog and allowed a promotional tie-in with his movie "The Rocker." Anyway, he will be the guest programmer on TCM on Oct. 14 and chose four music-related movies: "High School Confidential," "Singin' in the Rain," "The Gene Krupa Story" and "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T." But what would Dwight Schrute have picked?
Fox has picked up the back nine for the show for this season. I guess I'm actually going to have to watch those episodes stacked up in my DVR. Full announcement after the jump.
I watched the third-season premiere of "Friday Night Lights" after watching the second-season premiere of "Private Practice." While I didn't dislike "PP" (see previous post below), the viewing still showed the difference between an all right show and a very good one. …
What does it say when a series spends a lot of time talking about characters who are not even on the show? That was just one of the problems with last night's "90210."
No repeat for Mark Ballas, who was paired with Kristi Yamaguchi last season, since he and Kim Kardashian have been sent home. While I won't pretend Kim was good, she was at least marginally better than some other competitors. Or one. Because making this a rawer judgment — although Mark handled it with grace — was that they were opposite Cloris Leachman and Mark's dad Corky as the last two couples before elimination. (That does not, the show insists, necessarily mean those were the bottom two couples.) Leachman's a tired joke, and it has to sting to see her go on when you go home.
I caught up with "How I Met Your Mother" and "Two and a Half Men" this morning, as I once again realized I am agonizingly behind on my viewing — and there is more and more coming down the pike. "Dancing With the Stars" alone is killing me with those two-hour telecasts — and the lack of a really great couple right now –just some good ones, including Lance Bass, and we know how much Len hates him.
But at least "Men" was OK and "HIMYM" was one of the best overall episodes of the show. What riches: the hamburger search, Barney's hyping the new bank (and the reason why he was doing it), Marshall telling stories, Robin getting ever more hungry, a funny and not overdone bit by Regis Philbin, and, of course, the underwear radius. (For those of you tuning in late, that deals with where someone will go without pants. Go over to CBS.com and see the whole episode.) If they could have figured out a way to get a Robin Sparkles video in there, it would have been perfect. But it was close enough.
By the way, the adoration of New York City in last night's show is even more interesting when you look at the teaser for next week: "After inviting the gang to Stella's apartment in New Jersey, Ted tries to sell them on the perks of living in the suburbs until he learns that she expects him to move there after they're married."
Nielsen recently sent out an explanation of different ratings (metered market, fast national, viewers, households), which you may find being used in a variety of ways by TV propagandists. The explanation is posted after the jump.
The documentary about the '06 Ohio governor's race, which was shown in Kent over the weekend, arrives on Nov. 4. Yes, Election Day. It will include a tribute to Stephanie Tubbs Jones. Full announcement after the jump.
I wasn't in a big hurry to watch last week's episode of "90210," because I wanted to get through the second-season premiere of "Beverly Hills, 90210" (posted about below), since — based on the promos for the new series — they were both dealing with the question of sex for the show's leading lady. Fooled by a promo again. ….
My older son, a filmmaker and film buff, pointed out to me a recent Esquire profile of Paul Thomas Anderson, the writer-director ("Boogie Nights," "Magnolia," "There Will Be Blood") of enormous skill if occasional aggravation. …
(The above is the embed of the opening sketch, from the NBC site; last week the connection was shut down, but if that happens you should be able to find it on NBC.com or Hulu.)
I wouldn't have expected a show hosted by Anna Faris to be funnier than one with James Franco, but that's how it has turned out. There was another Tina-as-Palin bit to open the show, and I could watch this stuff every week even if Katheen Parker would rather not.
The couple driving home sketch was fairly amusing (although awkward about the n-word — the character would have said the word, as she had done at the dinner). And "Weekend Update" was very much on game, especially with Darrell Hammond's Bill Clinton. On the other hand, the presidential debate parody was uneven, and the show lost energy and inspiration in the final half-hour. Still, the show was a nice rebound from the last couple of weeks.
Earlier today I wrote a brief appreciation of the great actor, which you can find here. I am also now regretting that I did not get any deeper into my "Rethinking Paul Newman" posts about his movies, but time and other projects intervened. And, frankly, I was hoping that he would be around longer. Anyway, one of the posts, about "Nobody's Fool," talks about the way Newman got better as an actor as he grew older. (You can find it here.) And of the many marvels that were Newman's career, that's a big one. He never rested on his laurels or bogged down in eccentricity. If his resume includes the occasional role that appears to be for the paycheck ("The Towering Inferno" comes to mind), they were rarities in a career that included repeated searches for challenging parts. "The Color of Money" has its merits, but look closely at "Nobody's Fool" and "The Verdict" and "Road to Perdition" and other parts that showed a man racing for glory instead of just riding into the sunset.
