Hey, fellow Travelers! We had a great week both in episode response and in the ratings. All of your hard work promoting the show paid off with a 23-percent ratings increase week-to-week in the 18-to-49 demo. So, a huge thank-you goes out to all the fans who continue to spread the good Traveler word! Please keep it up. The show gets even more fun, action-packed and emotional as we head into the last three episodes of the season.Wow, "fun, action-packed and emotional?" Where have I heard those criteria for good entertainment before? Well, funny story. As you know from my earlier blog entries, I started out on the film side of this wild little town we call Hollywood. And in Hollywood, there's a special buzz term we use a lot when talking about the movie biz" "four-quadrant movie." But what exactly is a 4Q film? Well, there are about a dozen of them playing in your local cineplex right now. They dominate the summer movie season. They are films that appeal to all four of the major movieg...
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We wrapped for the season late last Thursday night. Intense week, this, with our premiere on Monday and our wrap on Thursday. Well over a hundred people work on Heartland, all with very specific and important jobs. And every person who works on this show does so at an enormous sacrifice to the rest of their lives; the hours are incredibly long, the locations hard and the task at hand is measured in minutes and always under pressure to get it done and get it done well. Those of us who work in this business are really nothing like the way the magazines and newspapers and television entertainment shows depict. We are, for the most part, very workaday people who labor long hours at our very specific jobs and do our best to do them well. Everything we do is handmade; this is no production line of sorts, no template, no easy way to getting it right or to making it good. At our best, we do our work from our hearts and attempt to tell stories that are true. When we do that, keep it simple a...
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Well, its all come down to this: 10 seasons. Over 200 episodes. Adventure. Laughter. Tears. And as this is the last episode of our journey together, I will make this my last TV Guide blog entry.Thanks be to all of you who have grown with us over the years. It has been a true pleasure, and one I’m sure I will not see the likes of again. The years have gone by so fast… so fast. So much has changed, in my life, and in the lives of those around me. And I’m sure of yours too.I was reminded as recently as yesterday how much can happen in 10 years. I shared a conversation on the plane with Katee Sackoff (of Battlestar Galactica fame — for those living under boulders) who enlightened me that she used to watch the early seasons of Stargate with her father… when she was 17. Holy crap. That aged me.I was a single boy of 26 years when we took our first steps through the gate, and now I speak to you as a father of three at 36 years old. It really does fly, doesn...
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Hello, all you Hidden Palms fans! My, but you are an exclusive lot. Perhaps a tad too exclusive. That might be why the network is now showing two episodes (that’s right, two original episodes back-to-back!) this Wednesday and next Wednesday, in the hopes that they can ignite Hidden Palms fever by the time our finale airs on July 4. (Cue fireworks here.)That being said, I deeply appreciate all your comments and votes of confidence and will continue to blog no matter what. Or at least until TV Guide tells me to stop. Which might happen on July 5. We’ll see. Anyway, let’s talk about our two upcoming episodes. I think you will enjoy them for the following reasons:1. The mystery surrounding Eddie’s death deepens.2. The adults start to become more of a factor in the developing events. Trust me, this is a good thing. Kids misbehaving is one thing, but when the adults go naughty, it’s a hoot!So, here's the scoop:• Cliff finally has it out with his mom’s sl...
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Well, we are in it now. New York, Montreal and San Antonio are done. I think the most controversial pick had to be Mel Silverback, half man/half gorilla. Some loved him, some hated him and everyone remembered him. Besides being funny, I picked him for the commitment to something that ridiculous. I loved him. We had some great and obviously some not-so-great [wannabe] performers. I only enjoy the not-so-great ones when they are truly a train wreck, and believe me we had plenty of those. The scary thing is that the guy who asked us to throw tomatoes at him wasn’t nearly the worst comic we saw in New York. One guy told us if we didn’t like him, we could leave. So we did. We walked out and he kept on talking. He may still be there telling bad jokes for all I know.People ask how we pick. Well, there are certain things we like. Funny helps, that’s big. Originality of topic or original take on a topic. We also look for acts that can sustain. There are some people who only ha...
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We premiere on Monday night. It’s kind of a strange thing; I’m directing the season finale as I write this, literally between takes. We are pushing so hard to get done on time and done well; meanwhile, we’re hiding from all the reviews and speculation that comes with the beginning of a new series. We’ve become a tight-knit family here, living in an abandoned hospital in Hawthorne, California, and shooting 13 hours a day. It’s been an incredible experience to conceive an entire season before being on the air even once. We’ve worked without knowing whether the show will connect with the audience. We haven’t been concerned with how many are watching or what the reviewers are saying. So we can only feel good about the job itself on its own merits. We can only focus on the work we’ve done. Which brings me full circle to how this all began, nearly two years ago.After my last show was canceled, I was in Maine reading a book about what happens to you...
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Hey, guys. Thanks for all the great comments last week. Nice to see the interest in the show picking up. Now, as the title of today's entry suggests, I've invited a special guest to join us here at Dave's Traveler blog. This coming week's episode, "The Tells," offers you the first heavy dose of Will Traveler since the pilot. I've reached out to the man who brought Will to life on the small screen, Aaron Stanford, to write this week's entry. Aaron and I are both young guys who established our careers in film. (You probably recognize Aaron from his work in the X-Men movies or in such indie faves as Tadpole.) We both made our first foray into television with this show. As you may have picked up from my earlier blogs, this is not an easy transition. And I thought it would be cool for you to hear about the challenges of making Traveler from an actor's perspective. So without further adieu, here's Aaron's entry to the Traveler blog. I'll make sure he's got the URL so he can check out your...
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Wow. I have not gotten into so much trouble for not completing my homework assignment since grade 9. You have no idea how many people have been riding me like Zorro for not keeping up with this blog. Thanks for caring. "I'mmmmmm back!" Well, not to make any excuses, but we have been shooting the second SG-1 movie, Continuum, for the last three weeks and things have been a bit hectic. Not to mention the fact that the first shooting week overlapped with my wife's last week of filming her movie on Vancouver Island, so I was working during the day and being both mother and father at night. This wouldn't have been that much of a chore if my daughter Mia hadn't gotten a bad cold in Victoria, and happened to keep both her and I up through the entire first night before filming. Zero sleep is not the best way to kick off the work week. "Tough darts, Batman." Anywho, the filming for Continuum has been great: frozen sets, Air Force F-15s and Richard Dean Anderson's return all crammed inside tw...
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Hello, good people! By that I mean those of you who are showing up and watching The CW's Hidden Palms. The rest of you, why aren’t you watching?!OK, let’s get to it, shall we? This week’s episode is entitled "Party Hardy," and I think you can figure out that this includes a party at the Hardy household. That’s all the clues you get from me.Let’s take a quick recap before we go any further. Johnny is getting e-mails from a dead guy. Amber just continues to look hot and she also has a history with the dead guy. And Cliff is still the neighborhood creep/interesting guy. By the way, Cliff starts to mix it up with his mom’s sleazy boyfriend this week. Don’t miss that!I love the fact that the show is able to start dealing with character and relationships now that all the set-ups have been addressed. This is the inherent challenge of any new TV show. Getting to the meat of the matter after you have explained who everybody is and what their deal is. In th...
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So here we go, the first episode of a new season of NBC's Last Comic Standing [Wednesdays at 9 pm/ET, starting June 13] is coming up. It's kind of fitting that the first episode will be set in New York, the land where dreams are made and broken.I guess I'd better reintroduce myself. I'm Alonzo Bodden, Season 2 runner-up, Season 3 winner and Season 5 talent scout.I've done it all on Last Comic Standing, except host. I wanted to host but they hired Bill Bellamy. After watching Bill, I see I have a lot to learn about hosting. He's great. He's bringing a whole new energy to the show, and he looks good in a suit.The other talent scouts are ANT and Kathleen Madigan. Kathleen is hilarious and she really knows comedy. When we did Seasons 2 and 3, she wasn't featured enough, the reason being that it wouldn't challenge her. We all knew how funny she is, but now you guys get to see it. I love Kathleen and all her voices, characters and whatever else goes on inside that little red head of hers....
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