Giggling at the antics of the slap-happy contestants who “come on down” at what he calls “the happiest place on Earth,” Drew Carey looks like he’s having a blast, and looks right at home, on the spiffed-up set of The Price Is Right as he takes over as host today. There’s no fuss and no ceremony, and outside of the introduction telling us we’re at the Bob Barker Studio in Television City, and that one of the games is still called “Barker’s Bargain Bar,” and that Carey chooses to sign off with the traditional plea to have your pets spayed, there’s no actual homage to the former host as the new Price era begins.And yet, probably the greatest tribute to Bob Barker is that the show goes on, and goes on effortlessly with its funny-looking new ringleader, who appears to be genuinely tickled at the breathless excitement of the frantic folks who come to play the game. When one of the contestants does a cartwheel after taking the stage, C...
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After Wednesday’s formless, scattershot finale of Rescue Me, I’m with Charles Durning. Almost. Head down, eyes closed, taking a long, long nap. For me, this respite will last until next summer, when Rescue Me returns for its fifth and what we have to hope will be a more satisfying season. For Durning, who played Tommy’s dad, there’s no waking up. Will he in retrospect be seen as the lucky one?In a poignant though not entirely unpredictable moment, made more notable for a quiet tenderness one rarely sees on this raw and raucous show, Tommy’s dad slipped away into a final rest as he sat beside his son at a minor-league baseball game. He brushes something off his clothes and then he’s gone. Just like that. Sure beats the violent end that has come to most people Tommy has lost during the run of this series. And yet: sad. Denis Leary played the reaction beautifully. Poor Tommy.I will try to resist using the most obvious baseball-as-life-metaphor analogy here...
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It's the final day! I survived another press tour! Hooray for me! Here's a rundown of what's on tap today:9 am/PT: Nightline (aka time to get my bags packed)11:15 am: Greek (ABC Family)Noon: Kyle XY (ABC Family)2 pm: Samantha Who? 3 pm: Men in Trees4 pm: Private Practice5 pm: Big ShotsGREEK PANEL11:27 am: Came in a little late to this one. In my defense, I had a lot of swag to pack up and ship home. 11:35 am: Confession time: I have yet to see this show. I plan to jump on board soon, though. I'm hearing nothing but good things. 11:40 am: The cast seems really down-to-earth.KYLE XY PANEL12:04 pm: Spoiler alert! By the end of the season, Kyle will let his parents in on his secret, according to supervising producer Julie Plec.12:05 pm: On revealing so much about Kyle in the season premiere, Plec says "out of respect for the audience, [we didn't want] to tease them."12:11 pm: Spoiler alert! Jaimie Alexander hints that something happens to Jessi in an upcoming ep that leads her "to act i...
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Frank Booth eyeballing the White House? Per Variety, Dennis Hopper is the Democratic contender and Kelsey Grammer the GOP incumbent in Swing Vote, a comedy starring Kevin Costner as a working-class dad who holds the deciding ballot in a presidential election. Nathan Lane and Stanley Tucci are their campaign managers.... Pride & Prejudice's Rupert Friend has been cast as Prince Albert to Emily Blunt's Young Victoria.... Warner Bros. has grabbed big-screen rights to David Morrell's The Brotherhood of the Rose, previously adapted as a late-'80s miniseries.... Per the Reporter, Jennifer Esposito is a single mom who gets involved with Val Kilmer's mysterious Iraq War vet in Conspiracy.
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Check your TV's thermostat. If the temperature's rising to alarming new levels, boiling over with riotous politically incorrect humor and scorching the screen with personal drama that's as wrenching as it is raunchy, you must be watching Rescue Me (Wednesdays, 10 pm/ET on FX).
In its fourth season, FX's bravely unsparing tragicomedy about a twisted brotherhood of New York firefighters is more obsessed than ever with outmoded codes of manliness. These flawed, funny antiheroes bust each other's chops at any sign of vulnerability, but the joke is almost always on them.
Not that Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary), the crew's No. 1 jokester, is in a laughing mood. He's under investigation for insurance fraud after last season's climactic beach fire, set by psycho Sheila (Callie Thorne
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