The Cleveland Show (Sunday, 8:30/7:30c, Fox)
An ill wind is blowing through Fox's "Animation Domination" lineup — well, the Seth MacFarlane variety, anyway. In a crossover sweeps stunt, a hurricane storms its way through Stoolbend (Cleveland Show), Quahog (Family Guy) and Langley Falls (American Dad). On Cleveland, the storm wrecks the Brown/Tubbs family vacation plans. On Family Guy, the stress of the storm (never easy on dogs) drives Brian to overindulge in questionable substances. And on American Dad, the hurricane wreaks havoc on the Smiths, who foolishly decide to ride it out at home. As for Springfield... The Simpsons go to the Jersey Shore, so apparently they didn't get the memo.
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With production halted on Big Shots (tonight at 10 pm/ET, ABC) by the writers' strike, the penultimate episode airs tonight. Which makes it a good time to assess the series with one of its four leads, Joshua Malina, who's been busy in ways that would be alien to the hapless Karl — "arguably the jerkiest" of the series' four tycoons, admits Malina. The father of two has been preoccupied with "field trips, class plays and being in total daddy mode."
TV Guide: So will Big Shots be renewed?Joshua Malina: It's a hot topic among the four of us. I'm doing an ABC promo shoot. I take that as hopeful. We're having so much fun together, it would be a shame to end. If I'm going to work, I'm going to laugh.
TV Guide: Do people complain about how jer
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Paul Blackthorne may not be a household name... yet. But the British actor, who recently starred as Harry Dresden on the now-defunct Sci Fi Channel fantasy series The Dresden Files, has guest-starred on Medium, Deadwood and Monk. He’s also racked up recurring roles on 24 and ER. Next up? The chameleon actor will play a Wall Street CEO and costar with Michael Vartan, Christopher Titus, Joshua Malina and Dylan McDermott on the new ABC drama Big Shots. “He’s what’s described as a corporate raider,” Blackthorne tells TVGuide.com. “He’s somebody that buys up companies, sells companies, just an all-around outrageous moneymaker.”Blackthorne’s story arc kicks off on Oct. 4 for nine episodes. “He’s someone that these other guys are slightly wary of in a business sense,” reveals the actor. “It also seems our man is circling around Dylan’s ex-wife, the one he still has the hots for.”Just don’t pin your hopes on Bla...
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After months of fielding questions from fans desperate to know if Sci Fi was ever going to make a decision on the fate of its clever private-eye/fantasy hybrid The Dresden Files, it's official: The show isn't returning for a second season.A shame, but hardly a surprise, given the reticence to discuss the matter every time I brought it up to Sci Fi or NBC Universal Cable execs during the recent TCA press tour. In their world, it's all about "running the numbers" (in other words: looking at the ratings and budgets, etc.) and to them, Dresden just didn't seem to measure up.This confirmation came my way the same morning that there are reports in the trades that Paul Blackthorne, Dresden's very appealing star, has joined the cast of ABC's Big Shots in a recurring role as what's being described as the show's "fifth CEO... a sophisticated, iconic tycoon that the [other] four (Dylan McDermott, Michael Vartan, Christopher Titus, Joshua Malina) aspire to be."At least he's landed on his feet. ...
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Get lost, ABC. That was the hostile undercurrent behind much of the questioning for ABC's entertainment president Stephen McPherson Wednesday morning. We critics can be a surly group, especially this late in the TCA press tour. (ABC has the bad luck to be up to bat on the final two days of the three-week hype-a-thon.) But give us something legitimate to gripe about — in this case, the decision by Lost's producers to skip the TCA and instead address the game-changing events behind Lost's cliff-hanger at the Comic-Con fan convention in San Diego on Thursday — and you'd better watch out.One reporter even put it this way: “Are we not important enough for you?” At first, McPherson tried to shrug it off with a joke, saying that he has hired Don Imus — fired earlier this year from his radio and TV gigs for a racial slur — to join the show. (This was the closest he or anyone else came to addressing the Isaiah Washington/Grey’s Anatomy debacle during his of...
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