David Simon started out as a reporter, not a screenwriter. His street's-eye view of Baltimore inspired two successful books, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and The Corner. Both became TV shows focused on cops and the violence of the drug world. Simon's HBO series The Wire was even more ambitious. A social critique disguised as a cop drama, it offered a bleak picture of the American city, and Simon's views on how to save it. He was still reporting, but in a different way than ever before. We talked with Simon, one of the influential television industry players interviewed for TVGuide.com's Best of the Decade section, about different ways of breaking stories — those that are true, those that are fiction, and those that are both.
read more
Mark Burnett has set up at NBC My Dad is Better than Your Dad, a game show in which fathers face off in stunt-driven challenges, Variety reports.... FX has given Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy a series commitment for Queen B, a workplace drama centered on a female CEO who grooms a young girl in her ruthless image.... Homicide's Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson are reteaming for the NBC pilot The Philanthropist, a series that sound a bit like The Equalizer.... After a fierce bidding war, ABC has ordered six episodes of Section 8, a drama penned by X-Men 3's Zak Penn and described as a blend of House, X-Men and The X-Files. OK.... ABC is teaming with hip-hop producer Pharrell Williams and filmmaker McG on Limelight, a drama set at a performing arts-school.
read more
• NBC has greenlit M.O.N.Y., a drama pilot about the mayor of New York (M.O.N.Y., get it?) from Tom Fontana (St. Elsewhere), and Area 52, which is described as a kind of Roswell with punch lines.• ABC has picked up two pilots: American Family, a comedy about a dysfunctional (see title), and an as-yet-untitled fish-out-of-water laffer about a big-city lawyer relocated to a small town. Rina Mimoun (Everwood) is behind that one. • Fox has OK'd The Rules for Starting Over, a 60-minute comedy about a middle-aged divorced man who must learn how to date in the Match.com era.
read more
Bedford DiariesAhh, bittersweet premiere. Given that Milo Ventimiglia already made a beeline for NBC's upcoming Heroes, I couldn't help but feel that WB was just going through the motions here — but hey, I understand. They spent good money on this show and they're gonna air it, by golly. More power to them. OK, before we bite into the meat of this sandwich, I admit it: I had high expectations for this show. Can you blame me? It was created by Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, and if those names sound familiar, it's because they also created a little show called Homicide: Life on the Street, all seven seasons of which grace my DVD shelf. And I wish I could say that Bedford was everything I thought it'd be, but my mom taught me lying was bad. There was nothing wrong with the premise — college kids learn about
read more
The new and controversial The Bedford Diaries. A Gilmore Girls return. A possible gig as a superhero. Rocky Balboa's son. And he even gets slain in a new slasher film. If you're a Milo Ventimiglia fan, this is your time to bask in his... Ventimiglianess. On the occasion of The Bedford Diaries' debut (tonight at 9 pm/ET on WB), TVGuide.com spoke with the popular actor about his very busy schedule.
TVGuide.com: Dude, have you ever had so much to talk about? I don't know where to start.Milo Ventimiglia: Dude, start somewhere, dive in. Whatever you want to start with.
TVGuide.com: In Bedford Diaries, you're playing a bit of a snake in grass.Ventimiglia: Yes. Yes, I am, yet again. Richard Thorne III, kid who comes fr
read more