Question: I almost always agree with your opinions, but I've noticed that you have consistently put down the CW network since its inception, as you just did in your Year in Review column. Sure, there are some not-so-great shows on the new network (like One Tree Hill and 7th Heaven), but there are also some very good shows on the CW (such as Veronica Mars, Supernatural and Smallville), just like on any other network. You keep referring to it as cobbled together and uninspired. However, the CW did what it sought to do. It took the best-performing shows of the WB and UPN networks and combined them into one, and from what I understand, it is starting to make a profit. Like any other network, it had its missteps. Runaway barely lasted two episodes, and I certainly would've preferred a renewal for Everwood over 7th Heaven. But honestly, who's to say Everwood would have fared any better in the ratings than 7th Heaven or One Tree Hill? It's not as if that show was raking in the viewers, either. ...
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Question: Did any network ever pick up Everwood?
Answer: This just in: The MIA network has renewed the show through 2034!
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Nora Zehetner, Heroes
The final moments of last week's Heroes (Mondays at 9 pm/ET) let loose with yet another whopper: Sweet li'l Eden McCain, aka Horn-rimmed Glasses' gal Friday, boasts the superpower of suggestion, and is apparently able to make anyone do anything she says. While Nielsen Media Research subpoenas the brunette beauty's phone records, TVGuide.com gave her portrayer, indie regular Nora Zehetner (Brick, Fifty Pills) a call to find out what's next on NBC's super-unpredictable hit.
TVGuide.com: From Day 1, did you know that Eden would be one of the heroes, that she had her own special something?Nora Zehetner: Yeah, I did. When I went to audition, I was kind of adamant that I wanted a power, but it turned out that that was their plan from the beginning. Who wants to be on a
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Question: Will Everwood's Rina Mimoun be writing for Gilmore Girls again, or was that just a one-time thing? Her "Cotillion" episode was fantastic.
Answer: Let's ask Rina! "Sadly, I won't be writing anymore Gilmore episodes any time soon. My development is taking up most of my writing time these days. Possibly in the later half of the season I may try to do one more. Your column is still my fave!" Was it tacky of me to include that last sentence? I'm kinda on the fence.
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Question: I share your newfound love for Brothers & Sisters. With Everwood gone, the quality family drama has become an endangered species.
Answer: Amen, brother. This show just gets better with each passing week. And there's some great stuff coming up. We're going to learn via flashback why Justin enlisted and how the conflict between Kitty and Nora was born. As a result, Tom Skerritt is returning for a handful of episodes as the late Walker-family patriarch.
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Question: Numbers is getting hot, hot, hot!
Answer: That may explain why it's kicking some serious Law & Order booty on Friday night. And Everwood fans are gonna love this: Tom Amandes is guest-starring on Nov. 24 as a man out to expose a covert government program that has destroyed lives, including that of a person close to him. Says exec producer/AAdict Cheryl Heuton, "It's a moving, emotional role that lets a good actor show his stuff."
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Question: I've never known a network to screw themselves just to spite the public, but I have to wonder if the CW is now on that path. 7th Heaven's numbers have been downright terrible. It's a surprise that the show wasn't canceled right along with Runaway. We all knew it. We all predicted it. And yet I read that it's been picked up for the whole season. Are they kidding us? The word Everwood will forever haunt these people, and rightfully so.
Answer: I can't even count all of the "I told you so" letters I'm getting about this. Given the evidence of the CW's soft launch, I'm not sure Everwood would have lived up to its WB ratings, either, but I'm sure the show would have pulled in more of an audience than Runaway did, and it would have been good PR to boot. As for 7th Heaven, it seems clear to me that the spike in numbers last season was because viewers thought they were saying goodbye to a long-running TV family, and they weren't too enthusiastic about welcoming them back past thei ...
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Question: How sweet for all the Everwood fans out there that the CW has canceled Runaway after only three episodes.
Answer: I don't like to take pleasure from other people's misfortunes, but I'll make an exception in this case. Par-tay!
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Some random TV thoughts:Each week since its overly somber premiere, ABC's Brothers & Sisters has improved, slowly becoming a more entertaining, if not yet compelling, family drama. The most recent episode, involving a series of eventful dates for most of the major characters, had a mostly deft light touch, showing (I think) the influence of Everwood's Greg Berlanti on the creative direction of the show.It's becoming a more suitable companion for Desperate Housewives, which also has improved from last season's doldrums. Housewives is still far from perfect, but give me some Edie Britt bitchiness, a little manipulative scheming from Bree and several mysterious twists (why was Mike Delfino's phone number etched in ink on the season's mystery corpse?), and I'm relatively satisfied. I can even get past the tiresome Gabby-Carlos feuding and Nora meddling in the indifferently plotted Lynette-Tom story line. (Did you notice, by the way, a walk-on by Who Wants to Be a Superhero's Major V...
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Question: I love Brothers & Sisters!
Answer: I'm smitten as well. Sunday's episode was by far the best yet — not surprising since it was the first one overseen by new show-runner Greg Berlanti. As he proved on our late, great Everwood, when it comes to writing monologues that tweak the brain at the same time that they tug at the heartstrings, he's frakkin' James Bond: Nobody does it better! (Natch, his soliloquies are even richer when they are delivered by fantastically flawed characters like Sally Field's Nora and Rachel Griffiths' Sarah.) Mr. B also reminded me why I fell in love with Calista Flockhart on Ally McBeal: Th
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