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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Remember how Charlie Brown used to end up on his back every time he went to kick the football after Lucy pulled it away? Well, that was me, in the pre-dawn of Thursday morning at the TV Academy building in North Hollywood, as the first Emmy category (for best drama series) was read aloud. Amid a gaggle of impatient media crews and anxious publicists, I once again felt sucker-punched by the cluelessly inexplicable whims of the Emmy nomination process. (Go here for a list of nominees.)The football analogy applies because, once again, the Emmy system dropped the ball, failing to acknowledge NBC’s critically worshiped freshman underdog Friday Night Lights, instead finding room for ABC’s cartoonishly lurid freak show Boston Legal (on the basis, so I hear, of a rare detour into quality with a post-Katrina episode). A chagrined Academy source tells me that Friday Night Lights came close, but speculated that it may have flown too far under the radar in a way overcrowded field. Hea...
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Heroes "flying man" Adrian Pasdar will take a different leap of faith this winter as the book writer for Marcus Hummon's new musical Atlanta, at Los Angeles' Geffen Playhouse, says Playbill.com. Grammy-winner Hummon has penned hits for a host of Nashville acts, including Mrs. Pasdar's (aka Natalie Maines') Dixie Chicks. Other Hollywood hotshots gracing the Geffen next season include Emmy winners Christine Lahti (in the West Coast bow of Wendy Wasserstein's final play, Third) and Laurie Metcalfe (in Quality of Life), and Annette Bening (in The Female of the Species).... Florence Henderson bares all in the New York debut of her autobiographical show All the Lives of Me: A Musical Journey, a one-night only event at Joe's Pub on June 11, and featuring a "no-holds-barred Q&A segment." But please, don't trot out that "Brady incest" query again. — Reporting by Raven Snook
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The latest fall-pilot developments, as recapped by our pals at Variety:• Laurie Metcalf has joined the cast of Lifetime's The Virgin of Akron, Ohio, playing the mother of the title character, a young model who returns to her hometown and, after surviving a car crash, is believed to have been sent by God. I'm sorry, a model who's a virgin? Aren't we already having trouble believing Adriana Lima?• ABC has picked up See Jayne Run, a comedy about a woman juggling motherhood and a career, and a sudser set in D.C. Also, it's now "official": ABC has cast Jordana Brewster as Jane in its Mr. & Mrs. Smith series — but TVGuide.com told you that yesterday.• Fox has picked up The Beast, about a veterinarian who can't stand animals, and a comedy about four post-college single women.
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Laurie Metcalf is a great guest star, and who didn't love her as wacky Aunt Jackie on Roseanne? I love how she's basically an older P.J. Quirky, funny, sitting at Crowley's with her niece's dopey friends. Welcome, Aunt Phyllis! Even better? Andy's reaction when he sees her: "Oh, no." And he was right.... Uh, good morning, Kenny. How awkward! But let me just point out... totally something Aunt Jackie would have done, too. Does Laurie just play crazy people? (Remember her psycho supermarket holdup on Desperate Housewives?) I felt very uncomfortable on behalf of P.J. and Andy — to have to watch their aunt groping their friend in public. Ick. Wait, wait... Wendy's ringtone is "Here Comes the Bride." I honestly think the cell phones are hilarious. But I love that Brando wants P.J. to be his best man. I mean, they've been best everythings since forever ago, so it's only appropriate. And I still maintain that they should end up together, so I feel a wedding-turned-disaster coming on....
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