If you didn’t happen to watch this past Super Bowl in New York, Dallas, L.A., or a handful of other “select markets,” chances are you were jipped out of a commercial. The Geico cavemen made their first ad appearance since their bomb of a show aired this past fall making. The Cro-Magnon pair make light of the fact that their lives were actually considered show-worthy. Looks like the tongue-in-cheek cave-men angle just won’t go away (and that goes for you too Budweiser and you’re “inventing the wheel” ad—come on, you guys are better than that!)
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Question: Does it seem like the networks this fall are nursing their new shows a little better than in the past few seasons? I know Viva Laughlin was canceled quickly (oh, well!), but the networks have picked up Gossip Girl, Private Practice, The Big Bang Theory, Back to You and Pushing Daisies for full-season orders. None of these are ratings blockbusters, but they have pretty decent followings and good buzz. Do you think the suits are trying something new as ratings, in general, have been down, or do you think that because there have been no major breakthroughs this season, they're being forced to nurse their new shows?
Answer: This is a fair observation. I was actually expecting a few more shows to be canceled by now. But given the generally depressed numbers for even hit shows this fall, it makes sense for the networks to let things continue to shake out for a bit as they try to analyze the potential for the new batch of shows, many of which have fallen far below expectations (in
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Question: Is it just me, or was last week's Cavemen actually kinda-sorta funny? The actress playing the cavewoman was a riot! What's her name?
Answer: Her name is Kim Director and I totally agree: She was some kind of hysterical. ABC should seriously consider changing the show's name to Cavewomen and making her the star. That I'd watch.
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Question: How do you think Bones will fare in the ratings? I see it recently averaged around the eight million mark. I'm glad it won't be up against Dancing with the Stars every week! However, it does compete with the well-established NCIS and now the two ABC comedies Cavemen and Carpoolers, which for me have no appeal. Bones doesn't get the media blitz that some other Fox shows do, like House and Prison Break. I'm concerned it will spend another season as an underrated show. Shouldn't Fox be putting a few more bucks into promoting a series with such heart and humor, one that is well-crafted and has a terrific ensemble cast with great chemistry? I enjoy the pairing of Bones and House, but I know American Idol is looming in the background, waiting to snatch away its time slot. Having a short break for baseball after only three episodes doesn't exactly help build the fan base, either. So what do you think Bones' chances are in its third season?
Answer: Bones is probably never going to be a
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Question: You and every other critic warned us that Cavemen was horrible, but I decided to check it out anyway. I imagined it as a traditional comedy that just used the cavemen issue for the occasional good joke. In fact, I thought it would be just as silly but as fun as Dinosaurs was in the early '90s. But instead of a show that acknowledged its silly gimmick, I found a show that actually thinks it is genius. I felt like the people behind the show were screaming, "Look at us! We are quirky! We are original! Admire us for our imaginative, offensive-to-none look at social problems! We are a serious show but still have a sense of humor!" Everyone knows that if you have to tell someone you have a serious side or a sense of humor, you don't have either. On the plus side, it made Carpoolers look really funny.
Answer: That's the first time I've seen Carpoolers and "really funny" in the same sentence. And hopefully the last. (And how bummed were you to learn that Cavemen is now set in San
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Michelle Ryan, Bionic Woman
Question: Did I go to bed in 2007 and wake up this morning in 1984? Bionic Woman is a new series and Knight Rider is coming back as a two-hour movie with a new series in mind. What is going on at NBC? Are they so unsure of their ability to create new series that they are reverting back to the oldies? If so, when can I see a new The Incredible Hulk? At the rate NBC is going, maybe we can also get those cool 1980s Toyota commercials where people jump in the air and say, "Toyota!"
Answer: Seriously, Josh, don't put ideas in these people's heads. That's how we get shows like Cavemen. My deadlines compel me to answer this before seeing the second episode of Bionic Woman, which I've gone on record as regarding as a work in progress. I still think this concept has some potential, especially if it evolves into something beyond a weekly downer. But a new Knight Rider? No thanks, particularly after reading in the trades that the summer success of the Transformers movie inspired this possible
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Cote de Pablo and Mark Harmon in NCIS by Robert Voets/CBS
Tuesday's ratings recap, here and now:8 pm/ETNCIS dominated the hour with 16.26 million total viewers, a massive 19 percent week-to-week surge. (It was also NCIS' most-watched outing since last Dec. 12.) ABC's Cavemen-Carpoolers combo placed second with about 9 mil each. Bones (7.89 mil) and Beauty and the Geek (2.66 mil) each lost around 350 thou.9 pmWith 17.28 million viewers, House dealt the DWTS results show (15.7 mil, dipping 902K) some bad medicine, in total viewers and key demos. Up 600,000 from its season opener, The Unit came in third with 11.34 mil. Reaper (2.82 mil) reaped 400 thou fewer souls than in its debut.10 pmLaw & Order: SVU (11.7 mil) topped... yet dropped (400K). Boston Legal (10.94 mil) gained 640 thou week-to-week to best CBS' Cane (whose ratings soured 17 percent from the premiere).Lastly, an update on Heroes' season premiere, which now — factoring in Saturday's replay — can boast an audience of 17 million (up from the original 14.1 mil). That a...
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Sam Huntington in Cavemen by Mitch Haddad/ABC
The evolution of comedy on ABC is not a pretty one, from the heights not so long ago of Roseanne to the absolute prehistoric depths of Cavemen, which premiered Tuesday night without benefit of sending a finished preview episode to critics. For good reason, clearly. We thought the original pilot we saw in May was lousy, but that was nothing compared to the woolly mammoth stinker that aired Tuesday. I didn’t crack a smile, bark a single laugh, even grunt a symbolic “ugh.” I think time may actually have stood still for a few seconds, somewhere between the scene where a caveman ordered a tall soy macchiato and cranberry biscotti after sneering at “pretentious poseurs” at the mall and the bit where, on the squash court, the hairy guys discussed how their sexual prowess made them “forbidden fruit” to female “sapes.”Forget ugh. How about ick?Pairing this instant loser with the whining-male flat tire known as Carpoolers made for what may have bee...
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Nick Kroll and Bill English, Cavemen
It is, until the moment the Caveman walks in, just another Tuesday night at Ford's Filling Station, a moderately upscale and oh-so-modern bistro in Culver City, California, the kind of place that caters to middle managers out on the town. There are lots of guys with beepers on their belts, ordering blood-orange margaritas and brick-oven flatbreads, steak tartare with pickled fennel and truffle chips ($14), passing time after work or before they head over to the multiplex for a night at the movies. You can dine outside by the sidewalk, or in the dim-lit dining room with exposed beams and brick walls, fresh flowers and lit candles at every table, the salt and pepper in tiny wooden bowls with tiny wooden spoons. All very tasteful, in a suburban-chic kind of way.They get a stray celebrity in here every now and then, the Sony Pictures Lot being just a few blocks away, but they've never seen a Caveman before, strolling in from Culver Boulevard in all his hairy-faced, r
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Cavemen courtesy Craig Sjodin/ABC
ABC's lightning-rod Cavemen sitcom has undergone more than a cast tweak and pilot reshoot. The titular Cro-Mags also are no longer braving Atlanta, and will instead call San Diego home, the Associated Press reports. Does Cali offer better car-insurance rates? Nah, it was simply a matter of not being able to "fake" Atlanta with a Los Angeles shoot. As previously reported, the original pilot — in which the wonderfully snarkastic Nick and his hirsute homies crash an upper-crust country club — has been scrapped, and the first episode out of the gate now will concern the revelation that one of the guys is dating a (gasp!) Homo sapien. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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