OK, how overwhelming is Thursday-night TV? (It's only going to get worse next week when ABC's delightful Ugly Betty enters the mix.)Thanks to some preview screeners, I managed to see nearly everything that aired last night (except on Fox, which is oh-so-easy to ignore right now). And while Survivor was a snooze and ER so glum and ludicrously melodramatic that I'm once again considering throwing in the surgical towel for good (though I will check out John Stamos' arrival to see if the show will neuter his charisma as well), the rest of the night was quite interesting.Commenting on the early news from last night's ratings: Woo-hoo to ABC and Grey's Anatomy for exploding out of the gate, clobbering (though hardly burying) CBS' still-sturdy but slipping CSI, which had a solid opener (and dazzling glimpses of Cirque du Soleil) and a disturbing finish that revealed Catherine had been drugged and taken to a strange hotel/motel room overnight. In an extended scene of wordless anxiety, Cathe...
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Ah, haven't you missed those great shots of the Vegas skyline? The smell of stale blood and gunpowder residue? Hodges' smoothly relating everything he does to women, even if only talking about his mother? It must be CSI in the air. I hope that many of you are going to join me in conversation this season and that McDreamy hasn't taken you away. Last season, a lot of people complained that the last few episodes contained more character development than crimes. I hear this season we'll have a good mix of the two, which should excite almost everyone. So in Part 1 of this two-part season-opener, we have a whole mess of crimes, but I was a little torn about the quality. Maybe it's because I've been dumbing it down, watching Rock Star all summer or 'Til Death and Happy Hour before this, but I was a bit confused as to what was going on in the first half hour or so. We had the death-defying Cirque du Soleil act with a woman crushed at the bottom, and we had a man in a tuxedo, dead at a party...
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Bill Irwin is a clown. But please, don't think of that as a slam. In fact, it's the highest praise we can lay on the elastic-bodied comic, who began his career in the Pickle Family Circus back in the '70s, but by the early '80s had become a wonderfully weird presence in the New York theater world. Movies and TV would soon call for Irwin's modern-day Buster Keaton shenanigans, but would rarely utilize the full arsenal of his talents. Happily though, he's currently prepping to star in Broadway's Who's Afraid of Virgin Wolfe and gets a loving tribute tonight on PBS's Great Performances (check TV Guide listings). "Bill Irwin, Clown Prince" is a behind-the-scenes look at Irwin and his craft that proves what we've always suspected: Being a clown ain't always a load of laughs.TV Guide Online: This special offers a very intimate peek into the work behind your art.Bill Irwin: To be honest, I don't think I would have felt comfortable with anyone
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