Hotel Babylon, Footballers Wives and Torchwood courtesy BBC America
So, obviously, I watched a ton of TV as a kid here in Philadelphia. But the one thing that had me running for the clicker faster than viewers did from last week's Oscars were those hoity-toity funny-talkin' people on Channel 12 (aka public television). High-button collars. Translucent skin. Questionable dentistry. I just didn't get how anyone would watch a show that didn't have cool, tan cops like the CHiPs guys or glamorous, toothy detectives like Charlie's Angels. I mean really, Doctor Who back then was a fright, with his big scarf and unsettling robotic dog. No thanks! I'd take the original Battlestar's dagget over that mess any day.Now that I'm slightly more evolved in my viewing habits, the idea of international programming is far less off-putting to my ugly American sense and sensibilities. Hell, I'll go so far as to say that the BBC in particular has been schooling some of the major U.S. networks on how to really do culty cool and sexy TV lately. And bless the stars, we've g...
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Kyra Sedgwick in The Closer by Darren Micheals/TNT
As the threat of a Writers Guild strike continues to loom, network suits are considering perhaps using finished and already aired-elsewhere episodes of international hits and/or cable series to fill schedule gaps should the stop-action happen. According to Variety, non-U.S. programming such as the U.K.'s Footballers Wives and MI-5, CBC's Little Mosque on the Prairie and CTV's Corner Gas could make their way to the Big 3 — and Warner Bros. is said to be shopping around The Closer — though execs maintain such acquisitions would be a last resort. "Right now," says NBC entertainment cochair Ben Silverman, "we're just hoping there's not a strike." Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Non-American Broadcasting Cooperative says, "Hey, whatever you do, don't send Black Donnellys our way."
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ABC Studios has extended its options on the actors associated with Football Wives, the BBC-adapted sudser pilot that was not picked up at the May upfronts, suggesting the network may tackle the project after all. One of the Alphabet's highest-profile pilots this development season, Football Wives stars Gabrielle Union, Lucy Lawless, Kiele Sanchez (sigh, Nikki...), Ving Rhames and James Van Der Beek. Should ABC ultimately "pass," sources tell the Hollywood Reporter that several other networks, including NBC and Fox, have expressed an interest in it.
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Zoe Lucker, Footballers' Wives
You'd have to go all the way back to Dynasty's Alexis Colby to find a saucier British TV import than Tanya Turner of BBC America's Footballers' Wives. To mark the fifth and final season premiere of the campy soccer-and-sex sudser (airing tonight at 8 pm/ET), we rang up Tanya's alter ego, Zoe Lucker, to talk about wild women, wacky ensembles and working with the original queen of mean.
TV Guide: Obviously, Tanya is a man-eater. But she's also a romantic. Zoe Lucker: I felt very strongly about that. If you play the straight bitch, then you're not going to have people on your side. I always maintained that the reason Tanya behaves the way she does is because of the way she's been treated. She basically wants to be loved by the right person.
TV Guide: And has she! How many husbands so
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Question: Do you know why Footballers' Wives wasn't picked up? It was on the schedule, and now didn't make the cut.
Answer: That's a good question. I saw the pilot and thought it was pretty good, in a Melrose Place, check-your-brain-at-the-door-and-just-have-fun kind of way.
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Question: I'm worried. I'm not going to argue that Gilmore Girls needs another season, but with Lorelai Gilmore recently being resigned to the ranks of Buffy Summers, Felicity Porter and Sydney Bristow, and the likely cancellation of Veronica Mars, the future of female-empowering television is looking bleak. Is there any hope on the horizon for those who enjoy a thoughtful show about intelligent women, or is that genre all but dead? Has reality "telexploitation" ruined the future of femme TV? Am I so naive to think that it can't all be a numbers game? Doesn't quality count for anything anymore?
Answer: We'll know more about TV's immediate future in the next week, when the networks' schedules are set and we start getting sneak peeks of the newbies. (And as Michael Ausiello has led the way in reporting, Veronica's fate is looking less bleak these days.) But given some of the new titles floating about — to name just a few: a series built around the Sarah Connor character from the
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Question: Any idea when BBC America will give us Season 2 of the delightfully quirky and wonderful Life on Mars? Can you work your usual magic and find some answers?
Answer: Happy to help. BBC America recently unveiled some of its summer plans, which include the return of Life on Mars in August. Also, as a cult alert, look for second seasons of Hex and Afterlife, as well as a fifth season of guilty pleasure Footballers Wive$, in June ...
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Per Variety, ABC has greenlit a pilot for a U.S. adaptation of the U.K. hit Footballers' Wives, and even has X-Men's Bryan Singer — whose last TV pilot was House — loosely attached to direct. In its American incarnation, Wives will be set in the world of pro football rather than that "other" football, soccer, yet promises to retain its over-the-top frothiness. Also in the U.S. version: more-conspicuous dental hygiene.
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Question: Suddenly, there's news that ABC is developing a show based on Footballers' Wives, but isn't the CW's The Game supposedly based on that same show? I hate to presume, but I'm pretty sure The Game will be... bad, while the ABC show seems to be an attempt at re-creating a Housewives-style buzz. But isn't it odd to do two series based on the same BBC series at the same time? Shouldn't there be some sort of issue with permission or rights to the British show, or is there no legal mumbo jumbo when it comes to American rip-offs?
Answer: Just because The Game, a spin-off of Girlfriends about women involved with pro football players, is set in the same general world as Footballers' Wives doesn't give it any bragging rights to be even remotely compared to the outrageous British soap. The Game is a standard sitcom that, if it's anything like the forgettable Girlfriends episode that spawned it (which is all I've seen so far), shares nothing tonally with the bizarre antics of the hourlong
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