Get Smart: The Complete Series courtesy HBO Video
New releases announced today, September 4:Get Smart - The Complete Series (1965) will be coming out December 9 Deadwood - The Complete Series will be coming out December 9 The Wire - The Complete Series will be coming out December 9 Visit TVShowsOnDVD.com for the complete stories on these and other news items.
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Timothy Olyphant in Samantha Who? by Randy Holmes/ABC
Cheers to Timothy Olyphant for proving there's life after Deadwood. The ex-sheriff brought the same intense commitment to his comic role as Christina Applegate's new love interest on Samantha Who? that he did to HBO's late, great Western. As billionaire Winston Funk, Olyphant oozed charm, despite an oddly close-cropped haircut (is he keeping it short in hopes of reprising his role as the chrome-domed assassin in a Hitman sequel?). Applegate's amnesiac may have turned down his character's marriage proposal, but Olyphant fans certainly hope she doesn't forget him all over again.
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Ian McShane by Albert L. Ortega/ WireImage.com
Deadwood's Ian McShane will play King Silas in Kings, a new series inspired by the story of King David (Aussie actor Christopher Egan) and reportedly a lock for NBC's 2008-09 slate. Sources tell the Reporter that the Peacock on Wednesday will also announce series pickups for Knight Rider, the Christian Slater spy drama My Worst Enemy and The Philanthropist, which centers on a billionaire who sets out to help others.It is hoped that NBC will also confirm the rumored DirecTV pickup of Friday Night Lights. The Wednesday upfronts reveal is the earliest in the network's history, and at least six weeks ahead of the standard May fanfare. As long as it's bringing us more series news, faster, I'm all for it. How 'bout you? — Anna Dimond
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Question: There was talk earlier in the year about a four-hour conclusion to Deadwood. Now that David Milch's John from Cincinnati has been mercifully put down, is there any chance we might see new Deadwood episodes?
Answer: I'd like to be able to use the strike as a convenient way to duck this question, as I do so many others these days, but the fact is that HBO and David Milch are already at work developing a new series (about police corruption in New York in the '70s), or at least they will be when they're allowed to get back to work again. So I think you can just kiss Deadwood goodbye. Unless, of course, a miracle happens and they suddenly announce it's a go. Which didn't seem to be much of a priority last time the critics got together with HBO leaders ...
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Keith Carradine, Dexter
Fresh from playing a milkshake-sipping serial killer on Criminal Minds, Keith Carradine is now hunting for one on Dexter (Sundays at 9 pm/ET, Showtime), as an FBI agent assigned to Miami after bodies are discovered in a harbor. Carradine shares his thoughts on his new role, his famous family and his Deadwood experience.
TV Guide: You play Agent Lundy, who is investigating the Bay Harbor Butcher. Tell us about him.Keith Carradine: I come in with this reputation as a star in the serial-profiling world. It makes Dexter sit up and take notice. He realizes he really has to watch himself now.
TV Guide: What do you like about him?Carradine: He's not cocky
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Question: Not only do I think Damages was the best new show to air this summer, I now have to say it is the best show on television! I usually can't stand it when shows do flashbacks, then revert to real time and go back and forward again. But Damages does it so well, and that device makes its stories all the more compelling. Here's my question, though: Will Damages be back for a second season? I ask because they have killed off so many of their major players; will enough cast members be left to do a second season, and if so, what storyline could they possibly come up with next? Glenn Close's performance is out-of-the-park superb. Most times Patty is cold, calculating, vindictive, cruel (remember the doggie?) and downright nasty. (Didn't we all love it when Ellen told her off and even again last week when she declined to come back to the firm?) That makes it all the more compelling when we see even the slightest humanity or compassion from her. She is riveting. Also, I've been a fan of ...
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Question: While I appreciate HBO's programming quality, it is sometimes impossible to keep up with which season of which show is beginning when. Considering how well-received the second season of Big Love was, I find it hard to believe that we'll be waiting an entire year for another installment. Have you heard anything about when a third season may be scheduled?
Answer: A little early for that, considering that we're still reeling from the cliff-hangers from last week's finale. With HBO as with much of cable, it's not easy to get a handle on confusing scheduling patterns, but given that the show was a modest success this summer and the network will need an anchor for next June, I wouldn't be surprised to find it returning a year from now. Although with no more Sopranos or Deadwood or Rome episodes on the back burner, HBO may need to use it earlier in 2008 (depending on production). The show premiered its first season in March 2006, so that's a possibility as well, I guess. It' ...
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Question: You have dealt with the issue of swearing on cable rather extensively in the past several columns; it seems to be an issue that is touching a nerve. I wonder if it's possible to admit that, no matter how opposed to censorship one might be, there is something about certain words that causes a mental or physical reaction. The F-word in particular is hard to stomach for many otherwise liberal-minded people, even in small doses. It always angers me when I'm watching a perfectly acceptable PG-13 movie, and just because the filmmakers can insert one F-word into the mix, they do. It's understandable that many viewers in the post-Sopranos era would be disturbed by the trend. Even David Chase grossly overdid it at times. But it certainly is possible to write entertaining, realistic television without these words. Look at Arrested Development, where the "scripted" bleeps were among the funniest things on the show. I think it's a blessing that this lamented masterpiece did not go to HBO ...
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Question: In Reina W.'s response to a question about the language on Saving Grace, she said, "[The writer] admitted to using profanity a lot, so how can she claim that a morally troubled woman should have a cleaner mouth than she does?" I myself have a very basic rule about profanity in TV or movies — if it gets to the point where I notice it, there is too much. There should be more important things on the screen, and if I'm bombarded with a volume of cursing that causes me to think to myself, "Enough already," the material isn't being well served. TV and movies should give us snappy, literate, witty dialogue — the way we wish we spoke. Just because you can say anything you want on cable doesn't mean you should. So far the language on Saving Grace hasn't crossed the line for me. However, I would hope that if the criticisms from average viewers continue, the producers of Saving Grace won't simply assume that the complainers are prudes. I don't believe in censorship, but I do believe in ...
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David Milch by Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com
• Sources tell Variety that for his next trick, David Milch (Deadwood, the deader wood John from Cincinnati) is working with former NYPD Blue exec producer Bill Clark to develop a drama about a Vietnam vet who joins the New York City police force circa 1970s. • Hot off the success of The Starter Wife, Lifetime is teaming with author Gigi Levangie Grazer on a four-hour miniseries adaptation of Maneater, Grazer's novel about a woman who bleeps her way to the top in Beverly Hills.• Fox has ordered seven episodes of Nothing But the Truth, a "game show" (my quotation marks) in which contestants are strapped to a lie detector in front of friends and family and asked 21 intensely personal questions. You may know the show as "Thanksgiving."
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