7/22/2008

TCA Press Tour, Day 12: The CW: Well, as I mentioned a few posts ago, I wasn’t around for any of The CW’s panels after their “90210″ presentation…which, as it happens, was their very first panel. Fortunately, however, the beauty of being a member of the TCA is that I can still provide you with highlights from the panels I missed. God bless transcripts, that’s what I say…

Even before we offer up the “90210″ coverage, however, let’s take a gander the info that emerged from the executive session hosted by the President of Entertainment at The CW, Ms. Dawn Ostroff.

* Like last year, The CW brought us details of a new reality show. This time, however, it’s not as underwhelming a pitch as “Crowned” or “Farmer Wants A Wife.” Not that I didn’t end up watching those shows, but “13 - Fear is Real” is one that I actually want to watch, since it’s executive-produced by Sam Raimi and Jay Bienstock. “The best way to describe this show is ‘The Blair Witch Project’ as a reality show,” said Ostroff. “It’s a competition show, but there’s certainly a lot of tension, a lot of fear, and it’s different. There’s an environment that they created in the bayou of Louisiana where, of course, they know it’s a reality show, but the intensity of the situation that they’re living in and the kinds of challenges that they’re faced with really feel real to them while they’re in it. This is hot off of the editing bay…this week, as a matter of fact…and it was shocking to see how invested these contestants were. I mean, they really felt the horror.”

* There wasn’t much “Reaper” news, unfortunately, except that it definitely has a place on the schedule in mid-season. “It’s a great show for us to have in our arsenal,” said Ostroff. “It’s a show that we believe in, which is why we picked it up.” Yeah, but let’s call a spade a spade: they only believed in it enough to pick it up as a mid-season replacement, not for a full season. We can only hope that, come mid-season, the show’s fanbase has built up enough steam to keep it rolling for a third year.

* There is currently no plan for another season of “Beauty and the Geek.” There is also no formal word of cancellation, however.

* And I’ve saved this bit for last because, frankly, I don’t want to believe it, but…ugh…Ostroff claims to have been happy with the time-jump on “One Tree Hill.” “Our expectations were we would do something different that felt, certainly, in line with the show, because the actors had gotten older,” Ostroff said, “and they were excited about the idea of playing characters closer to their real age. We know that when characters often go into college years on a show, it’s sort of hard to keep them together, and the storylines aren’t quite as relatable, so the idea of jumping the show four years forward, having the characters outside of college, in the working world, being young adults, just felt like the time was right. We knew we would have interesting storylines for each of the characters, and Mark Schwahn is just a really good writer. He took all of these characters and put them into young adulthood, created new arcs, new situations, and the show had a renaissance. I mean, it was a great idea, and it really did pay off for us.”

Pft. The results still felt trite to me, and I’m not backing down on this.

Okay, now we move on to…

90210

As we already revealed a few days ago, Shannen Doherty will be returning to Southern California’s most famous zip code as Brenda Walsh for a few episodes. So will Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling, and even Joe E. Tata. But what else is going on in Beverly Hills these days?

Well, before we answer that, let’s figure out exactly what this show is.

“It is a complete original invention,” said producer Jeff Judah. “There will be, though, somewhat of an homage to the original show. We just finished shooting the pilot about a day ago, (but) to set it up a little bit for everybody, it’s about a family moving from Kansas back to Beverly Hills. Rob Estes’ character actually grew up in Beverly Hills. He was the next-door neighbor to one of our previous characters. They moved back and it’s how they handle this new world. We’ll be using people from the previous show in the new one, and they will organically work with our characters.” (There will not, however, be any reference to the coincidence that this rather closely mirrors the Walsh family moving from Minneapolis to Beverly Hills.)

This series will be different from the original in several ways. For one, says Judah, “we think this generation of parenting is different than the ones we grew up with. We, as parents, did almost everything that our kids are doing. Our parents didn’t do that. It’s a lot harder to lie to us. We know what they’re doing, and they can’t get away with stuff that they think they are because we did it 20 years ago. Nice try.” Also interesting, however, is the assurance from Judah and his production collaborator, Gabe Sachs, that the series will contain some of the same quirky comedy that was such a hallmark of their earlier series, “Freaks and Geeks.” (That alone is enough to capture my attention.)

Tristan Miles, late of “The Wire,” is playing a character named Michael, who he swears isn’t nearly as dissimilar from his previous character, Dixon, as you might think. “They both grew up in bad environments and they both had to grow up by themselves very quickly,” said Miles. “From Dixon, moving from group home to group home and Michael, living with a drug addict mother and raising his little brother, it’s similar to an extent that they both had to teach themselves how to grow, how to live by themselves.”

Jessica Walter, however, confirms that there’s at least one significant difference between Lucille Bluth, from “Arrested Development,” and her “90210″ character, Tabitha: “Lucille liked vodka, and Tabitha likes scotch.” But, seriously, folks, Walter explained that “Harry and Debbie and family come back to Tabitha’s Beverly Hills mansion is to take care of me, because I have been drinking. I’m now on the wagon. I promised them I’m going to try…and that’s something Lucille never really tried!”

If you’re looking for more specifics about how Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling are returning, Judah assured us that “Jennie’s character has been brought back into the show in an organic way, so when you see the pilot, you’ll see how she’s brought in. It fits naturally.” No further info about Tori, except that both her role and Jennie’s are more than cameos. As far as how the Peach Pit has evolved over the years, Judah says, “It’s a cool coffeehouse now where a lot of kids hang out, but it’s not going to be like the old show where it’s, like, ‘Hey, it’s Color Me Badd! What are you guys doing here?’ It’s more of like a cool coffeehouse, but there will be a music extension. There will be a Pit upstairs, which is actually a real music place.”

I gotta tell ya, I’m psyched for this. I wasn’t even a huge fan of the original series, but the team of Judah and Sachs has me thinking that this might actually be worth watching…or, at the very least, it should be worth investigating for a few episodes before deciding if I’m going to keep watching. Plus, it’s something I know myself and my wife want to check out, and I just can’t underestimate a show that appeals to both of us.

Privileged: Well, since I wasn’t at the panel, let’s go to the official press release from The CW to find out what the show’s about, shall we?

“Twenty-three-year-old Megan Smith (JoAnna Garcia, ‘Reba’) has a Yale education, a relentlessly positive attitude and a plan to conquer the world of journalism, despite the fact that she is currently slaving away at a tabloid rag. Megan’s plan is thrown off course when, in one whirlwind day, she gets fired, meets cosmetics mogul Laurel Limoges (Anne Archer, ‘Fatal Attraction’), and becomes the live-in tutor for Laurel’s twin teen granddaughters in the heady Palm Beach world of wealth and power. The girls, Rose (Lucy Kate Hale, ‘Bionic Woman’) and Sage (Ashley Newbrough, ‘The Best Years’), are beautiful, rebellious and less-than-thrilled with their new tutor, but Megan is determined to win them over as she enjoys the perks of her new job - breathtaking private suite, gorgeous car and live-in chef Marco Giordani (Allan Louis, ‘Stomp the Yard’). Even the neighbors are fabulous in Palm Beach, and Megan quickly catches the eye of Will Davis (Brian Hallisay, ‘Bones’), the wealthy and extremely hot dilettante who lives on the estate next door and just happens to be dating Megan’s estranged sister Lily (Kristina Apgar, ‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’). Completing this romantic quadrangle is Megan’s best friend Charlie (Michael Cassidy, ‘Smallville’), who is secretly in love with her. Despite her own complicated romantic and family relationships, Megan is committed to making a difference in the lives of her two headstrong students as she navigates the treacherous waters of high society in Palm Beach.”

Not unlike “90210,” what has me interested in this show is its executive producer: Rita Mimoun, who not only worked on “Gilmore Girls” but also actively admits that this show resembles that one. “It’s very much, ‘What if the Gilmore girls were teaching the Gossip Girls?’ That’s how I sort of like to blend the two. What I loved about ‘Gilmore Girls’ was the tone and the upbeat, and there was this tremendous sense of heart and this fantastic mother-daughter relationship that I think made it very accessible, not just for the teenagers, but for families to watch it together. And I think that’s really what we’re sort of hoping to do on this show, is kind of tap into that vein again and play up all of the fun that they get to have on ‘Gossip Girl’ with the sort of money and privilege and wealth, but coming at it from a different perspective, using Megan as our Lorelai, if you will, to sort of bring it all back down to our earth and how we, the regular people who don’t live in that type of community…how it would be for us. So it’s sort of wish fulfillment.”

It’s also sort of funny, according to Mimoun. “This is the most tremendous cast, and they’re each so funny and sparky,” she says. “I’ve been really lucky about that.”

Okay, dammit, I’ll give it a try. I mean, I disliked “Gossip Girl” from the pilot, so if this is truly a blend of that show and “Gilmore Girls,” it still means I should make it through the first couple of episodes without wanting to kick in the set.

Stylista: Hey, it worked pretty well last time, so again we go to The CW’s press release.

“If ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ were a reality show, it would be ‘Stylista.’ Eleven aspiring fashion enthusiasts vie for a much-coveted editorial job with Elle magazine. They work as assistants to Elle’s Fashion News Director, Anne Slowey, a demanding but well-respected fashion icon. The competitors carry out an assistant task and a fashion editorial assignment in each episode. Each week, in consultation with Elle’s Creative Director, Joe Zee, Anne fires one person, until the last assistant standing gets ‘promoted’ to the coveted real-life job opportunity. The grand prize includes a paid editorial position at Elle magazine, a paid lease on a great apartment in Manhattan, and a clothing allowance at H&M, all for one year, valued at $100,000.”

Well, obviously, I haven’t the slightest interest in watching this show, but I’m sure my mother-in-law will be all over it…and I mean that in the most loving way possible. (She watches “America’s Top Model,” too, so fair enough. To each their own.)

Lastly, we had panels for “The Doctors,” a new daytime series which looks to be like “The View” if it were populated solely by physicians, and “Judge Jeanine Pirro,” which is exactly what it sounds like: yet another court show. Okay, granted, Pirro will be taking on some tougher cases than her peers, including deadbeat dads and domestic violence, but in the end, it’s still a court show, y’know? Still, there’s potential for it to be something at least slightly different. Same deal with “The Doctors,” and since lord knows we’re a nation of hypochondriacs, it may well prove to be a hit. We’ll see what happens.

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7/22/2008

TCA Press Tour, Day 11: Showtime: It’s rather gratifying to see Showtime continue to grow into its own as a premium cable network that can compete with HBO. For so long, they were hovering just a shade higher than Cinemax in the eyes of viewers (I don’t know about anyone else, but I distinctly remember seeing many a bare breast on the network back in the day), but now they’ve got a reputation for having at least as much quality original programming as the folks over at Home Box Office, and their popularity is such that the network earned their own executive session.

Matthew Blank offered us a heartfelt introduction, along with the announcement that “Inside the NFL” will be coming to Showtime next season, then promptly passed the buck to Robert Greenblatt, the network’s President of Entertainment, who provided us with several other revelations about upcoming programming:

* Coming soon: “The United States of Tara,” which stars Toni Collette and John Corbett, is executive-produced and based on an idea by Steven Spielberg, and is written by Diablo Cody.

* There are very serious discussions about an “L-Word” spin-off, though it seems to exist predominantly on paper at this stage of the game. “Eileen Chaiken is creating that for us,” said Greenblatt. “We’re going to be shooting it right after ‘The L Word’ wraps this year, and it will star one of the girls from ‘The L Word’ as a sort of crossover. The storyline at the end of ‘The L Word,’ the final episode in the final season, there will be an open-ended component to it. And Eileen is going to carry that story along on the Internet, which we think is an interesting way to keep ‘The L Word’ experience going. Then if we decide to go ahead with the spin-off that storyline will segue into the new series.” He would not, however, commit to which girl was intended as the star of the spin-off, mostly because the actress hasn’t even been told that she’s under consideration yet!

* Another season of “Penn & Teller: Bullshit!” has been ordered, and with this 7th season, it will officially become the longest-running series in the history of Showtime.

* There will be a new reality documentary series called “Locked and Loaded,” which is not about Denis Leary but, rather, about a gun store in rural Colorado. Greenblatt described the series as “sort of a fly-on-the-wall show. You see many, many different kinds of people coming into a gun store, and you see the reasons why they buy handguns and rifles and all kinds of other things.”

* Based on the creative success (but, ultimately, due in no small part to the ratings success) of “Weeds,” the network has ordered two more 13-episode seasons of the show.

* After much discussion on the ‘net about the possibility, Greenblatt confirmed that the Edie Falco pilot, currently known as “Nurse Jackie” (a title which may or may not stick), has been ordered to series. She plays what Greenblatt describes as “a very complicated nurse in a New York City hospital,” and based on the clips we saw, by “very complicated,” he means she’s a drug addict. And, yes, someone else did bring up the similarity to “House,” but Greenblatt assured us that “it’s not going to be big medical story of the week necessarily. I think it’s a different take on a medical show that’s grounded by a really iconic, caustic character played by a great actress.”

* Even though they’re limited by history, Greenblatt thinks that there’s at least another two years of plot possibilities left in “The Tudors.” “The third season is the next two (wives of Henry VIII), Anne of Cleves and Jane Seymour…I love meeting people who think Jane Seymour, the actress, is in the show…and then the following season, I think, will be the final two wives,” he theorized.

* The future of “This American Life” is murky. “Ira (Glass) is not only the most dedicated person in the world, he’s a perfectionist and he doesn’t want to put any episode out that isn’t really extraordinary,” said Greenblatt. “And I will tell you that’s not true of all producers. He’s also doing a radio show, and he will not let anything affect the quality of the radio show. And the same people are doing the radio show and the TV show. So every year, we step back and have a conversation with him. ‘Can we do ten? Can we do eight? Can we do six?’ There may be a year where we do a couple of long-form specials with him and we don’t do episodes of the show, per se, because it’s really hard to find those stories. They don’t just fall into his lap.” To put a fine point on it, a third season has not officially been ordered, but per Greenblatt, “We’re talking to (Ira) about how many he wants to do and what form it might take.”

* Showtime is currently planning to air the three seasons of “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” - one’s already aired in the UK, Season 2 premieres there in September, and the third has been commissioned but hasn’t yet begun filming - and reserves the right to consider airing any future seasons, should there be any. “But,” added Greenblatt, “it looks like a
franchise that there’s a lot of interest in.”

Okay, that’s that. Now, we move onto a panel described as “Showtime’s SHO Stoppers,” which featured the stars and producers of the network’s four signature series: Weeds (Mary-Louise Parker and Jenji Kohan), Californication (David Duchovny and Tom Kapinos), Dexter (Michael C. Hall and Clyde Phillips), and Brotherhood (Jason Clarke and Blake Masters).

This wasn’t as educational a panel as I’d hoped it would be, since we had four significant series to tackle with only about 45 minutes, give or take, to do it in, but we did get a few interesting nuggets out of it.

* Michael C. Hall describes Jimmy Smits’ character on “Dexter”: “Because of the discoveries Dexter’s made about his father, he’s in a place where he’s turned his back on him and yet still is utilizing the code, claiming it for his own, and thinking of himself, at least consciously, as his own man now. And yet I think there remains an unconscious desire for a connection. Circumstances lead him into a relationship with Jimmy Smits’ character that satisfies that unconscious desire, and he’s simultaneously attracted to and repulsed by the idea of a sort of intimacy with another person.”

* Clyde Phillips offered a bit more detail on the character, revealing that he plays a politically ambitious assistant district attorney in Miami. “Dexter and he form a friendship,” said Phillips, “and he is really the first adult friend that Dexter has
had, and it’s new to him. What Dexter strives for or perhaps longs for…and, again, we get into the whole thing of how dented is he really…is normalcy, and whether that’s camouflaged or whether it’s genuine is something that we continue to explore. But as that friendship progresses, Dexter becomes more and more open with the Jimmy Smits’ character and is able to talk…not through voiceover, but in reality, in our reality…for the first time and open up a little
bit about who he is. And that’s what we’re going to explore this year.”

* Phillips also tackled the question about what we can expect from Deborah this year. “First of all, one of her goals is to get her detective shield,” he said, “and she will have to learn that there’s a gray area between the black and white that she believes in police work. She’s still, we find, psychologically looking for the approval of her father, because she never really had it, because young Dexter took up all of his time. Also this year, I can tell you that she will finally enter into a healthy, loving relationship, but I can’t tell you with whom. Hopefully, it will be a surprise.”

* According to David Duchovny, Charlie and Marcy Runkle (Evan Handler and Pamela Adlon) will have more to do in the second season of “Californication,” though he offered no specifics on exactly what they’ll be doing. He also declined to answer when asked what would happen within his own character’s love life.

* Tom Kapinos on where “Californication” can go after ending Season 1 with such closure: “Season 2 is very much exploring the mystique of happy endings because we ended with the guy getting the girl, getting exactly what he wanted. But we froze the frame, and I always knew that if you sort of released that frame, at a certain point those smiles would fade. So this season, it’s just about figuring what happens when the guy gets the girl and in the morning he wakes up and has to figure out how to maintain that relationship. And also, I wanted to end it that way because I love the fact that, in TV, you can tell a complete story. If for whatever reason you didn’t get to come back again, you could enjoy that season as a full experience.”

* Blake Masters on where he hopes to go with “Brotherhood”: “I think we’ve always been a show about
moral ambiguity, and I think at this point where we’re headed is the idea of what happens when Tommy Caffee and Michael Caffee when their moral compasses get a little bit twisted around as they make choices that allow them to escape the boxes they’re in for the end of the season. Michael is — at the beginning of the season he’s king, but uneasy is the head that wears the crown. Tommy is no longer king. He is now second fiddle. What does that do to Tommy’s desires? And the choices they make out of that get lead them to places that are morally ambiguous as always.”

* Jenji Kohan on why “Weeds” decided to literally torch the past and move in a different direction: “The truth is, the room was getting restless. We felt we sort of covered the territory, and a lot of the writers were talking about the projects they we’re going to do when the season was over and things they wanted to talk about and…my staff is fantastic, and I love these writers, and I wanted them to write about the stuff they wanted to write about at ‘Weeds.’ I didn’t want to lose anyone because they were feeling tired of the subject, so we just decided to blow it up and try something new and it really invigorated everyone. It was very, very exciting.”

* When asked if “Dexter” would ever deal with its title character accidentally killing someone who was innocent, Clyde Phillips answered in the affirmative, though he admitted, “I can’t tell you precisely what happens. But we could consider it dropping a pebble on the side of a mountainside filled with snow and an avalanche comes from it. Something gets set into motion that can’t be pulled back. So, yes, we’re considering it and we’re into it.”

Lastly, I just wanted to close with a comment made by Masters when the panel was asked how they felt about making these great shows which are, at least when compared to HBO, being watched by a relatively small audience.

“I would compare it to the fact that Britney Spears sells about a million times more albums than Tom Waits,” said Masters. “But I listen to Tom Waits.”

‘Nuff said.

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7/21/2008

TCA Press Tour, Day 11: CBS, Pt. 2: You may have noticed that my postings have slowed down. You might not have cared, but you’ve probably at least noticed, if only because you haven’t gotten four or five Diggs from me every day. Well, there are two reasons for that: the first is that we’re dealing with days with one broadcast network as opposed to five or six different cable networks, and the second is that my wife joined me on Friday, and given that I hadn’t seen her since July 7th, I wanted to focus more on her than my work for a change.

C’mon, I earned a break! And it’s not like I wasn’t still attending all of these panels for you…well, except for the majority of The CW’s panels. I must admit that, after the “90210″ presentation, we hit the road and went to Universal Studios…and, yet, even then I was working, so be sure to stay tuned for my coverage of the new ‘Simpsons’ ride, which was awesome.

But, okay, enough of my apologies. Let’s continue with CBS’s presentations, shall we?

The Mentalist: I’d like to take this moment to give a shout-out to my mother-in-law, who was interested in this series before it was even on my radar. When I told her I had started to get my usual flurry of advance screeners in preparation for the TCA tour, the first question she asked was, “Hey, have you gotten one for that show ‘The Mentalist’ yet?” In fact, I had just gotten one that day…and when I told her, she all but flipped out. “We need to watch that when I come over for dinner on Friday!” she informed me. She kept trying to tell us about the shows that the series’ star had been in, except that she was blanking on both his name and his other shows, but a quick trip to IMDb.com solved both problems, at which point she gave a look of disdain when I admitted that I’d never actually seen an episode of Simon Baker’s previous series, “The Guardian.”

Finally, as we began to screen the pilot, the truth came out: she thinks he’s hot.

I can’t speak to the man’s inherent hotness because I don’t want “The Mentalist” to fall victim to what is henceforth to be referred to as “The ‘Moonlight’ Effect.” I really, really dug what I saw, possibly because it reminds me of what “Psych” could be if James Roday didn’t grate on my nerves. It’s a drama about a guy named Patrick Jane (Baker) who has honed his observational skills to a degree where he was able to make a living as a TV psychic, but he’s since given that up and become a detective. He’s got a major ego, but it’s warranted, given how good he is at what he does. Still, it’s been known to backfire on occasion; he has a dark history which is hinted at during the course of the pilot and will be explored during the course of the series.

Baker admitted that he got particular enjoyment out of playing the flashback scenes to his character’s early days. “That was a lot of fun,” he said, “because you’re playing an actor and you get to actually comment on the shallowness of acting. You’re commenting on yourself, so it’s sort of self-deprecating in a sense. I love that the character is a fraud and is aware of his fraudulent nature.”

Baker did not, however, have an opportunity to do much research for on playing a TV psychic, given the speed at which things happened with his casting and the pilot’s subsequent filming. “I was flown in from Australia, met with Bruno (Heller, producer) the day I arrived,” said Baker, “and a day and a half later, we were shooting, basically. So Bruno said, ‘Have a look at a few different people on YouTube,’ and I had a look at stuff. Next thing, I had my whole family around me, we’re all going, ‘Oh, my God, how did he do that? How did he do that?’ And then on YouTube, there’s also people posting other clips where they debunk, explaining how these tricks are working through NLP, neurolinguistic programming.It’s just tip-of-the-surface of the knowledge that these people have, so I didn’t ask anything. We had a consultant from the Magic Castle, who was more of a sleight-of-hand guy, but he had a few different hypnotizing tricks and stuff like that. And Bruno furnished me with a bunch of literature, holiday reading. It’s very heady stuff. What these guys get into and the skills that they have and then the capacity to remember things and move forward is…it’s too much for me. I’m pretending totally 100 percent to be a mentalist.”

To bring things full circle, let us note that Heller is aware of the similarities to “Psych,” but he’s not worried about critics making snarky comments. “Patrick Jane isn’t pretending to be a psychic,” explained Heller. “He was someone who worked as a psychic but now is very honest and direct about not having those powers, so there’s no pretense. They’re two quite different shows. You can always draw parallels with other shows, but this is much more like Sherlock Holmes than (’Psych’).”

I second that emotion.

The Ex List: It is perhaps less surprising to find that both my mother-in-law and my wife enjoyed watching the new series from Diane Ruggiero, who worked in close proximity with Rob Thomas during the run of “Veronica Mars.” Not that my mother-in-law was such a huge fan of Ms. Mars’ exploits (although both my wife and I certainly were), but far more so than that series, “The Ex List” is definitely a chick show. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, you understand…after all, you’re reading the work of a man who has openly praised Lifetime’s “Army Wives,” remember…but with this show, it’s very, very, very woman-centric. Like, instead of dick jokes, there’s vagina humor.

“I actually let my vagina write half of the script,” explained Ruggiero, “so it’s not my fault.”

Yeah, well, women have the advantage there. It’s not like I can hold a pen with…well, anyway, we should probably move on from this particular theme.

The show focuses on a woman who explores all of her past relationships after a psychic tells her she’s already dated her future husband, so it’s equal parts “High Fidelity” (if Rob Gordon was a woman) and “My Name Is Earl” (since, as the title suggests, she does indeed have a list of her exes), but there’s a twist: the psychic says she only has a year to find this man. This begs a rather obvious question, namely, “What happens if the show gets a second season?” Granted, it’s not something that’s been an issue for a lot of CBS’s freshman series in recent years, but, still, it’s a valid query.

“There’s a plan,” Ruggiero assured us, “and it’s a good one, and it does not involve any sort of trickery or, you know, bull. It will be in real time and…there’s a plan. There’s a fix.”

Still, there was a follow-up to be asked: if this goes on for several years and she goes through all the exes over all those years, when does it go from her being popular to her being a slut?

“Well, I wanted her to start as a slut,” replied Ruggiero, “so I figure we’re just going to keep going. No,
actually…”

“What’s a slut?” asked Elizabeth Reaser, star of the show (and former “Grey’s Anatomy” cast member). “I mean, who’s to say? How does one define that? Sorry, this is your question. I’m just curious. It’s sort of relative.”

“It’s relative,” admitted Ruggiero. “Yeah, my father has a very different definition than, I’m sure, other people might. But, no, it’s a good point. I think that one of the things with the show is it’s not just someone that she’s dated, so it is also people that she was romantically involved with. In the pilot, they talk about what constitutes romantic involvement. I have been romantically involved with some people that might not necessarily agree with that assessment, and I would tell them. Perhaps Adam (Rothenberg, cast member), who’s, like, ‘I’ve never met her,’ and I’m, like, ‘But we were in love! You meant something to me, man!’ But yeah, so it’s people that she was romantically involved with. So it could be the kid in sixth grade that she had a crush on and they passed notes and he gave her a rose on Valentine’s Day, but they never, like, did it. But even if she did, it wouldn’t make her a slut. A woman explores all of her past relationships after a psychic tells her she’s already dated her future husband.”

I’ll just say this: if Ruggerio can only manage to capture even a tenth of her own likability into this show, she’s going to have a hit on her hands. She was so captivating and entertaining during the panel that you found yourself sucked into her responses and hanging with her throughout their significant length. You’ve got an idea of the concept of the show, so I’ll just close by offering an idea of how long-winded Ruggiero could be…and how funny she was in the process. (Note: I’m only offering it transcript form because I think it reads better that way.)

Writer: Diane, you sort of famously came out here as a waitress from the Meadowlands with a TV show, and they mixed you up with some people who actually knew what they doing, and the show went on for a couple of years, and now here you are, all California and big producer and drunk in bars.
Diane Ruggerio: Yeah. I’m so fancy!
Writer: How did that happen? Was it a hard road to get here or was it just as much fun as it sounds like it was?
Diane Ruggerio: I mean, in the beginning, when I first got out here and I was, like, ‘Woo-hoo, look at this, keys to the kingdom,’ I was, like, ‘Oh, wait, I have to actually do something. Crap.’ It was scary and I had no idea what I was doing. It was terrifying. I literally was waitressing one day and then three months later was at my typewriter. But then the show was canceled and I didn’t work for like a year and I’m, like, ‘So does someone come and tell me to go home? What happens now? They don’t just give you another pilot?’ I was just waiting for that to happen. Apparently, no one else was waiting for that to happen, and so it was scary. And that’s one of the things…being a writer, it’s not just like they’re constantly giving you jobs and shows. There was some lean years, man, and…well, a lean year and a half. ‘Woe is me,’ right? Then I went on ‘Veronica Mars,’ and that was the best experience of my life, hands down, and that is why I’m here, I believe. And doing ‘Veronica Mars’…Rob Thomas is a genius. He’s one of my best friends. I had this feeling like I couldn’t write anything other than my stuff in Jersey and what we were talking about, that little world. Like, if I can throw my Aunt Janice into it, I’m cool, but otherwise I’m screwed. And working on ‘Veronica Mars’ meant that I can actually write other things. It was a great experience. As far as California goes, I used to be heavier by, like, 50 pounds, and they actually weren’t going to let me stay here because apparently…I would, like, go into a store and ask, ‘Do you have a size 14?’ And they’re, like, ‘Bitch, you’re in California. We don’t carry a size 14. What are you talking about? Put down the fries. Go to the beach.’ In Jersey, I was, like, cute, you know? Kinda-ish. I never had a problem getting a boyfriend. I dated. I had people. I literally was out here, and I’m, like, ‘Oh, my God, if they’re not coming at me with a head shot going, ‘You’re a producer, right,’ there’s nothing. But, yes, it’s different. I don’t know. I’m just talking. Did I answer anything that you wanted to know? How am I still here? Is this cool? This rocks. I have this weird, funny thing with CBS where I love them and they’re very, very sweet to me, and very supportive of me, and there were times we were trying to work together again and it was always me and Barbara Hall. It was always me and some rock-star producer. And I’m, like, ‘Why are you even pretending that I’m going to get this job?’ Like, I’m going to go in with my little like note cards and pitch you and then like some bad-ass producer is going to come in and…it was like pulling away the football a couple of times. And then they called me about this, and I was thinking, ‘Okay. Who is the bad-ass producer attached?’ And there wasn’t, so I just sunk my teeth in and was, like, ‘We have to do this quick because of the strike? Cool. You’re stuck with me. Try to shake me now. Just try it.’”

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7/21/2008

TCA Press Tour, Day 11: CBS, Pt. 1: Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you can’t deny that CBS has been talked about quite a lot in the last couple of years. First, “Jericho” got the network lots of press as a result of their decision to resurrect the show for a second season because of fan demand, then it got them even more when they canceled the show for good after it failed to win the appropriate ratings. In recent weeks, they’ve been dealing with bitter vampire fans who can’t believe that “Moonlight” managed to win the People’s Choice Award for Best New Series, only to get canceled when it, too, failed to win the ratings necessary to earn it a sophomore season. Last year, Mandy Patinkin’s abrupt decision to bail out of “Criminal Minds” was all the talk of the TCA Tour, and, now, William Petersen is leaving “C.S.I.,” which is also chat-worthy.

CBS President Nina Tassler took all comers in her Executive Session, and here are the highlights…besides that bit about “Moonlight,” of course.

* The future of “Swingtown” is ambiguous at best. “I’m very proud of the show, I love the show, everybody knows how passionate I’ve been about it,” she said. “I wish the ratings were better, but this is the life we’ve chosen for ourselves. But right now, we’re behind the show and we are proud of it.” When further questioned as to whether “proud” translated into “second season,” however, she wouldn’t commit. “We haven’t made that decision right now, but I am proud of the show. Creatively, I think they’re doing a great job.” (She also reiterated her disappointment in the ratings, which is surely not a good sign.)

* Despite much prodding, Tassler claimed to have no actor in place to fill the shoes of “Billy Petersen” in “C.S.I..” “I don’t think you replace Billy,” Tassler said, “but you sort of look at adding elements to the show that are really going to invigorate and contribute to the alchemy of the show where it is today. They’ve created a great character. He’s a doctor, a scientist who’s got a very interesting DNA that is going to inform the duality of the character. Like I said, it’s not necessarily replacing Billy, but it’s adding an element that is going to sort of inform the dynamic of the team today. What I know of him so far…Carol (Mendelsohn) and Naren (Shankar) are still working on him…is that he is an outsider coming into the CSI unit. When Gil Grissom leaves, he’s the head of the unit, (but) this character doesn’t come in at the beginning as the head of the unit. He comes in a little bit as an outsider, someone who is ultimately going to work his way up within the team and ultimately become the head of the unit. But he has an interesting genetic profile that, in certain sort of medical contexts, they’ve noticed that many times serial killers have that same genetic profile. And this gentleman knows this about himself and is sort of in this journey and to discover who his true character will ultimately become.” The gentleman in question, however, has not yet been cast, and if there’s anyone under discussion, his name did not leak out during the course of the panel.

* Disappointingly, “Harper’s Island,” the new thriller series starring Bill Pullman, is not scheduled to debut ’til mid-season. (Okay, granted, it’s probably not any better than your average slasher flick, since that’s clearly what it resembles, but I was still entertained by the teaser reel they sent us.)

* There is no controversy over the omission of Jay Mohr’s new sitcom, “Gary Unmarried,” from the panels. “Jay is re-taking his vows with his wife and her entire family on the other side of the world someplace,” Tassler explained. “He planned this about a year ago, and he flew over his in-laws and his whole family, so that’s why he’s not here right now.”

* Sophina Brown has joined the cast of “Numb3rs,” and Rocky Carroll has become a regular on “NCIS.”

* Despite doing relatively well on CBS this summer, there are no plans to continue re-running “Dexter” on CBS.

* There are six more episodes of “Password” being filmed, but there is no concrete time-frame as to when they will air. There is no word on the return of “Power of 10,” though CBS apparently reserves the right to bring it back. (At the very least, Tassler never said it was canceled.)

* There will also be more Hallmark movies aired on the network, though no specifics were offered.

* Despite rumors to contrary, there is no plan for an overhaul of “The Price Is Right.” “We are very respectful of the brand and the integrity of that show,” Tassler assured us, “and probably about a year, two years before Bob finally stepped down, there was a multiyear strategy to perhaps put a fresh coat of paint on some of the games that hadn’t been touched in years. As you’ve seen, the sets have been refurbished, but certainly respectful of what those doors looked like, what the lights looked like, but this is all basically it was a plan that was put in place years before Bob left just to sort of make some minor adjustments to the show.”

* Tassler revealed that Sarah Chalke will be doing multiple episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” this year (hey, maybe Bill Lawrence was right!) and that Jason Alexander and Luke Perry would be turning up on “Criminal Minds.”

* As to the problems with “Two and a Half Men” becoming “Three Men,” Tassler says, “You’re going to see Angus is going to be going through typical teen things. I mean, he’s 14. So it opens up a whole new treasure trove of stories. Charlie’s got a whole host of issues that he has to deal with in terms of having a teenager in the house, so it forms a great season of new storytelling for them on the show.”

* “Flashpoint” may return. Or it may not. “Like I said, we’re in the ratings game,” said Tassler, “and if they do well, it’s certainly something for us to consider.”

And that’s the end. From there, we move into…

Worst Week: Hey, kids, who wants another American adaptation of a British sitcom? Because, y’know, now that “The Office” has survived the adaptation process successfully - like, to the point where it’s one of the biggest shows in the U.S. - everybody’s figured out how to avoid all the mistakes they could possibly make during the transition process, right?

Well, maybe so, if “Worst Week” is any indication.

The original UK series was entitled “The Worst Week of My Life,” and it lasted for two seasons…the first covering the wedding of a young couple and all the horrific things that befall the poor groom, the second tackling their first child…as well as a three-part Christmas special, appropriately entitled “The Worst Christmas of My Life.” Fox originally tried to adapt the show for American audiences, but the pilot wasn’t picked up. Now, CBS has taken a stab at it, and if I had to guess why this one took off while the other one sank like a stone, I’d guess it’s because the producer of “Worst Week,” Matt Tarses, once worked with Sarah Alexander, star of “The Worst Week of My Life,” in a short-lived (but very funny) series called “Teachers.” Maybe that has absolutely nothing to do with it, but I’d have to guess that Tarses almost certainly checked in with Alexander to get her thoughts about the pilot.

Having seen the pilot myself, I can tell you that there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that it’s hilarious. The bad news is that it flies by at such a frantic slapstick pace that it’s hard to conceive that they’ll be able to keep up this pace. When asked this question point blank, Tarses’ face crumpled and he said, “We can’t maintain that.”

He was kidding…probably.

“I think the goal is to try to maintain that,” said Tarses. “I mean, we’ve been working really hard at it. That’s what the show is. A friend of mine asked me, ‘Well, he’s not going to step in it every week, is he?’ And the answer is, ‘Absolutely, yeah, he is.’ I mean, that’s what we’re going to do or we’re going to set out to do, and the trick will be figuring out ways to keep it fresh and keep it surprising and interesting.”

For me, the best part of the show is seeing Kurtwood Smith again…and, even better, as a grumpy dad again! As Red Foreman on “That ’70s Show,” Smith played one of the best dads in TV history, and I say that without any intention of being hyperbolic. He really was that good. As far as why he keeps ending up in roles like these, Smith says, “I think some of it has to do with the authoritarian image I have from the past, because of a variety of roles that I’ve played before I started doing television comedy. I was always killing and maiming people. I think that sort of sits in the back of people’s minds so that they’re always feeling, ‘Well, no matter how nice he is, he must just kill the guy.’ I think he’s quite different than Red. He fills the same function obviously, but this gentleman’s a judge. He comes from a whole different background. Red was much more of a sort of closer to a blue collar conservative, and this guy’s a whole different deal. He does work in the same way, but he has much more of an acid wit.”

Playing Smith’s wife in the series is Nancy Lenehan, best known for playing Earl Hickey’s mom on “My Name Is Earl,” and, ironically, she was Smith’s pick to play the part…even though he didn’t even know she was in the running.

“When I read the script,” said Smith, “I didn’t know who was being considered for the wife, and I asked somebody at the time, and it was not somebody in the production, but they said, ‘Well, they’re considering this person and this person.’ I said, ‘You know who would be just perfect for this? Nancy Lenehan.’ And the next day he called me back and said, ‘Did you say Nancy Lenehan?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘She got the part.’ And I was so excited. Nancy’s terrifically easy to work with and very, very funny. She makes me laugh.”

Yes, but how does she stack up to your “That ’70s Show” co-star, Debra Jo Rupp?

“Well, Debra Jo Rupp is a mean, spiteful woman,” began Smith. “Impossible to get along with.”

And then he grinned.

“No, Debra Jo’s great,” he assured us. “They’re different people. They’re both very talented, and they approach their comedy in different ways, as all actors do. All actors, I think, work a little differently. I think Debra Jo’s, for me, very easy to work with — I worked with her for eight years, she’s one of my closest friends — but she is very…you know, everything has to be in its right place. And Nancy’s a little bit more laid back, and…it’s just different. I’m not extolling one over the other. I’m very fortunate. Here’s the big thing: they both make me funny. That’s what’s important.”

It sure is.

The Eleventh Hour: Wow, two British series adaptations back to back? Is this coincidence? Surely not. I’m chagrined to admit that I haven’t seen the original version of “The Eleventh Hour,” even though it stars Patrick Stewart and has gotten a lot of raves from people who enjoy a cracking good sci-fi drama…but, wait, is this really science fiction?

“It’s a science-fact show,” corrects producer Ethan Reiff. “The show is filled with science, but it’s science that surrounds us every day of our lives already. It’s the science that’s going to be the subject of at least one front-page story in the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal every day. I think if you look around, probably, if not every one of us, then every other one of us, our lives have been directly touched in one form or another over the last decade by endless cutting-edge breakthroughs in genetics, in biochemistry, and miniaturization and nanotechnology. Speaking for myself, I’m an insulin-dependent diabetic, and the insulin that keeps me alive now is manufactured by genetically engineered bacteria. So that’s where this show lives and breathes: the science that’s really here. And we think that’s really cool.”

Taking on the Stewart role is Rufus Sewell, who - at least in my mind - earned permanent awesomeness by starring in “Dark City.” Sewell had not actually seen the original series, but he’s not overly concerned about any possible comparisons between himself and the man who previously filled his role. “For me, the fact that they’re casting me as opposed to Patrick Stewart means I don’t need to worry about trying to be like Patrick Stewart,” said Sewell, “because, obviously, you’d get Patrick Stewart if that’s what you wanted. So I wasn’t worried about trying to match that, but rather, then, just trying to do it the way *I* would do it, because presumably that’s why they’ve come to me.”

But why are you playing the role with an American accent?

“Because he’s American.”

Why couldn’t he be British?

“Because I don’t want to play a British character for a long period of time which people will assume is me,” explained Sewell. “He’s not me. He’s got better lighting and he’s much, much smarter. But for me, the idea of playing a character in a long-running American series…I like to play characters, whatever hook I can get into them. I love doing accents, for example, whatever, just things that make me someone else. And Jacob Hood, having a distinct American voice, takes me into a different register. It makes me feel like someone else. Also, I want to continue with my film career, my theater career. All I need to do is turn up and do an interview in my own voice and I’m obviously not him and I think that’s quite important. You know, people say, ‘Why are you doing that?’ Why wouldn’t I? I mean, I read the character. He’s American. If he was Czech, French, or whatever, that’s the character. It’s not the idea of trying to make him more like me; it’s trying to make me more like him.”

By the way, “The Eleventh Hour” is a Jerry Bruckheimer production. This isn’t always an instant guarantee of a long-running series (”Close to Home” was shut down after only two years, for instance), but it certainly bodes well for a show that’ll be eye-catching.

“Jerry wanted to have a meeting with us because it turned out he was a fan of ‘Sleeper Cell,’” said Reiff, “and, obviously, we felt terrific about the idea that Jerry was a fan, and we went in and we had a meeting with him. We got along pretty well with him, and he seemed to really like the idea of being in business with us and we went out and we made a deal with Warner Bros. Television — Bruckheimer Television deals are at Warner Bros. Television now — and it just seemed like the next natural thing was come up with something we could all work on together and that’s what we did.

“The biggest element that he adds,” clarified Reiff, “is something that’s invisible to all of you guys, because you don’t get involved in this process until the people on our side have already climbed over that Mount Everest, which is getting on the air. If Jerry Bruckheimer is attached to a project as one of the executive producers and it’s being done under the aegis of Bruckheimer Television, there’s a very, very, very, very good chance that it’s going to get on the air.”

“Also,” added Cyrus Voris, “I think Jerry has tremendous taste, and what helps is that people want to work with Jerry, so you’re able to get Rufus Sewell to commit to your show. You’re able to get certain writers and directors to come work with you because of Jerry’s name value and, you know, what’s great is Jerry is sort of like the 400-pound gorilla you have on the show working for you behind the scenes. You know if there’s any crises or any real problems that get out of your control at some point, you can always touch base with the Bruckheimer folks and say, ‘Can Jerry help us out here? Does Jerry know somebody? Can Jerry make a phone call?’”

The bigger question, though, is, “Can Jerry keep ‘The Eleventh Hour’ on the air?” We shall keep our fingers crossed. As it stands, we still haven’t seen a full-length episode, but what we have seen is tantalizing.

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7/20/2008

Why Craig Ferguson is the coolest talk show host on TV today: Because for the second year running, he bought us pizza for our TCA meeting.

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