Per Variety, Tina Fey (who just yesterday during a 30 Rock conference call was saying how busy she now is) and SNL-WU sidekick Amy Poehler will costar in Baby Mama, a comedy about a career woman who hires a surrogate mother to bear her child.... Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon are in final talks to star in Tsotsi director Gavin Hood's Rendition, about a CIA analyst who witnesses something he shouldn't have.... Jim Caviezel will star in Outlander, a sci-fi adventure pic about a man from another galaxy who must help a Viking tribe ward off an alien predator. Kinda sounds cool!
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Matthew Perry, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Question: Is there a point to having Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Tina Fey's 30 Rock on the same network? Studio 60 looks more interesting, although the ad campaign seems to focus on the Network rip-off — I mean, homage — than on Sorkin. 30 Rock seems much more based on real life, with Tracy Morgan basically playing himself. However, it seems baffling that we have two shows about a fictional Saturday Night Live debuting at the same time. What are their long-term prospects?
Answer: These are excellent questions, and ones we've asked ourselves (and NBC during the press tour) repeatedly. The only way we're going to get a real answer is to see how the public responds. The dilemma facing both shows is that the track record isn't exactly great for TV shows set in the world of TV (not even Sorkin's brilliant Sports Night, whose pilot I enjoyed more than Studio 60). To their credit, the shows don't feel remotely like each other. 30 Rock is a straight-out comedy/satire,
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Question: Everyone keeps saying Scrubs is a mistreated show. Doesn't NBC deserve a little credit for keeping it on the air for a sixth year? Scrubs couldn't hold much of the audience when it got a shot after Friends, but NBC has stuck with it anyway and has given the writers a good amount of freedom. I love the show and am thrilled to see it live on, but I'm a little sick of TV critics saying how mistreated it is when it's gotten well over 100 episodes, and when other networks would have given up on it by now. Poor little Scrubs. If that is being mistreated, what do you call the treatment given to shows canceled after one season, or worse, a handful of episodes? How about giving some credit where it is due?
Answer: All valid points, but still, for NBC to bench Scrubs for half a season two years in a row seems like killing it with kindness. Especially at a time when the show has finally crossed the Emmy threshold with nominations for best comedy series, and this fall it would pair up so
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Question: Which fall pilots would you deem worthy of my time?
Answer: I finished watching the last of the pilots over the weekend and I have fantastic news: For the first time in recent memory, the good fall shows easily outnumber the bad ones — at least based on the pilots I saw. As Desperate Housewives taught us, the second and third episodes tell us much more about a show's creative bones than a season premiere. With that said, here are the fall offerings that have the most FauxVo potential.
* Vanished (Fox) and Kidnapped (NBC): Among the things these two thrillers share in common: They both&
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Question: I'm curious. From what you have seen so far of the shows being introduced in the upcoming fall season, which ones are worth watching?
Answer: From the stuff I've seen so far, Fox's 24-esque kidnapping thriller Vanished and NBC's Tina Fey SNL-esque comedy are two early standouts. I also got a kick out of Fox's The Wedding Album, but that was mostly because of the chemistry between recently fired lead Bruno Campos and costar Tara Summers. On the flip side, all of Fox's comedies — with the exception of Brad Garrett's 'Til Death, which has potential — are major stinkers. I also wasn't crazy about CW's Runaway, and I'm not saying that because it took Everwood's place on the fall schedule. Oh, who am I kidding — sure I am.
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Question: Now that Tina Fey's NBC sitcom 30 Rock has been picked up, does this mean she is leaving Saturday Night Live?
Answer: It's my understanding that she'll continue on as "Weekend Update" coanchor but will relinquish her role as SNL's head writer.
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Tina Fey
It's crunch time in the network scheduling rooms, as many questions are being asked about next season. Will Grey's Anatomy go to Monday nights? Will Lost start in November, to cut down on repeats during the season? Is Wayne Brady getting another show? The answers will come next week. We hear there wasn't a lot of laughing during the executive screenings of most of the season's comedy pilots, but here's what industry insiders say are the hottest of that tepid lot. (Click here to read about the drama-pilot buzz.)
NBC: The Peacock network is only expected to add two sitcoms. One is the still-untitled show from Saturday Night Live head writer Tina Fey — a workplace comedy set behind the scenes of a
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Onetime West Winger Matthew Perry stars on Aaron Sorkin's Strip.
Television's new fall lineups won't be unveiled until May, but Hollywood is already making predictions about which pilots will become full-fledged shows. Here are some projects that are generating heat.
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip NBC has penciled in this drama from West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin about the backstage doings of a famous sketch-comedy show à la Saturday Night Live. Sorkin's mighty pen, and a cast that
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Rachel Dratch has joined Saturday Night Live cast mate Tina Fey's NBC comedy pilot about an SNL-type show.... Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie) will star in the Fox comedy Till Death.... Kim Raver (24) has been added to ABC's drama about nine strangers held hostage during a bank robbery.... Kelli Williams (The Practice) is back doing the lawyer thing on ABC's Women in Law.... Jeffrey Donovan is one of the Enemies in ABC's drama about two childhood friends who grow up to be a lawman and a mobster.... Meta Golding (JAG) is the sister of Taye Diggs' framed cop in ABC's Day Break.... Currie Graham (Lynette's boss on Desperate Housewives) has joined the CBS drama Edison.
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The Office First things first: I know Jenna Fischer gave us fair warning in this week's blog, but I simply can't get past Pam's slightly different (yet thoroughly radical) hairdo. It's like when a formerly four-eyed friend gets contact lenses, or when Alex Trebek shaved off his mustache — you can't think about anything else for staring at the oh-so-tiny, all-consuming change. Sparkly pink headband… I might not sleep for days. Maybe I should take a stress-management cue from Meredith and whip up a big ol' somethin'-and-tonic in the break room.
While the rest of the office deals with Valentine's Day and its requisite emotional
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