Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
She's quiet, yet occasionally lets slip some spunk. She favors a tepid homemade sandwich over a "fancy" lunch-cart nosh. And she really needs to start showing her pins. She's Mad Men's plucky Peggy, and TVGuide.com asked Elisabeth Moss (The West Wing, Invasion) to share a peek behind those bangs. Mad Men airs Thursdays at 10 pm/ET, on AMC.
TVGuide.com: How goes it playing poor Peggy?Elisabeth Moss: It goes good! [Laughs] We're all done with the first season, and it was good. I'm back in New York now.
TVGuide.com: Did you have any reservations about playing Peggy, who's not exactly the most glam gal in the steno pool?Moss: No, no... I liked that she was new to everything. Everybody has their specific, unique character.
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Question: In your column this week you said, "And speaking of self-fulfilling prophecies, I'll state my contention again that if you choose not to get behind shows out of a fear they'll get canceled, you may only be contributing to the problem." In recent history, I have tried out The Nine, Invasion, Day Break, Vanished, Studio 60 and now Traveler. With the exception of Vanished (which was wretched), I enjoyed all of them on many levels, with Invasion being my favorite and Day Break being my least. (Vanished doesn't count.) Before those there was Firefly, Freaks and Geeks, Sports Night, My So-Called Life.... I could go on. I'm just curious how many times I'll have to get torn away from a show without any fulfillment before I can stop trying to feel like it's my fault? I think back on a show like Homicide, which was amazing and so critically acclaimed despite the fact that it was never a ratings gem, and I wonder if today's market would have even given it a chance; I think we know the ...
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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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Question: Like you, I was blown away by the pilot of The Nine. But it slowly fizzled on me, and I think I finally figured out what happened. I think that the writers were trying to write the show as if it had already been picked up for a full second season, and so they were building a lot of context without any real "bang." Do you think this is what happened, and have there been other shows that you think have fallen into this trap? Other compelling shows, like Heroes, build context while still packing a punch. I think that's one of the reasons that Heroes has done so well: It really keeps you coming back with its constant cliff-hanger endings. It reminds me of the first seasons of Lost and Alias. No matter how implausible it seemed, you had to know what happened next.
Answer: The show that held The Nine's time period last season suffered much the same criticism: Initially it didn't move fast enough, and the payoffs were too subtle to keep viewers coming back. Invasion remedied that
...
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Lisa Sheridan has landed the lead in the Lifetime drama pilot Conspiracy, says the Hollywood Reporter. The Invasion alumna will star as a D.C. lawyer targeted by a (yep) conspiracy after she discovers that the Big Pharma case she won was rigged.... Per Variety, Cedric the Entertainer has signed a talent holding deal with ABC, as part of which he will star, write and exec-produce a comedy about the single father of a teenage girl.... Fox has a pilot deal for The Institution, a single-camera comedy focused on three couples weathering the highs and lows of matrimony, while CBS is developing The Swim Team, about a thirtysomething bachelor whose college-days sperm-bank donation comes back to haunt him in the form of a knock at the door.
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William Fichtner, Prison Break
As all but two of the Fox River 8 remain at large on Fox's Prison Break (returning tonight at 8 pm/ET with fresh episodes), the stakes gets higher and the law gets closer. As part of TV Guide's Fall Hot List coverage, we asked William Fichtner what makes his FBI agent tick like the pill-popping time bomb he is.
TV Guide: You're playing FBI agent Alexander Mahone, who is deceptively smart and oh so twisted. William Fichtner: The more twisted the better! Who wants to play a straight-away FBI guy? When I read the first two episodes, I thought, "What the heck is going on with this guy?"
TV Guide: What's up with those pills? Fichtner: I think his plate is so full he needs a little help. He takes his pills, takes a deep breath and figures out a major piece of the puzzle.
T
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ABC's Brothers & Sisters has joined the charmed, and so far rather tiny, circle of new fall series rewarded with what is known as "the back nine," as in a full-series renewal taking the original order of 13 episodes to 22 (sometimes expanded further for true breakthrough shows). At the moment, only three other shows have this honor: ABC's delightful Ugly Betty and two speculative fantasies that defied the odds to capture an early following: NBC's intriguing Heroes and, to the surprise of many skeptics (including this one), CBS's dark-hued Jericho.Over the next few weeks, we'll find out which other newbies will get the full-season order and which will bite the dust in 13, if they even get that far. Here's my educated guess, by network.CBS The network with the most solid and consistent schedule was the first to cancel a show (Smith), and has only two other new series to decide upon.While Shark on Thursdays has been a bit of a disappointment, relative to its CSI lead-in by being up...
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Question: When does the new season of Joey premiere? (BTW, you look kinda like Eddie Munster.)
Answer:
Believe it or not, NBC is debuting the third season on Sept. 32 at 13 pm, directly opposite the return of
Invasion on ABC and the fourth season premiere of
Joan of Arcadia on CBS. And you thought
Thursday night was congested.
Question: I see Invasion will be back this season. What is the premiere date? You said Sept. 32, but there's no such date.
Answer: On the count of three, everyone point at Amanda and laugh.
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Question: In your review of Vanished (which I agreed with except possibly for the "continue watching" part), you left off one serious flaw in this (to me) totally flawed show. The acting was completely lame. It felt like a daytime soap. Only Ming-Na, whom I liked on ER, seemed "natural." The misdirection "clues" hit you over the head (haven't the writers heard of subtlety?). The FBI is competent on the surface, yet I'm sure they will be proven completely inept. Is there any hope for this show?
Answer: Couldn't agree more that the biggest handicap Vanished faces at this early point is the lack of a galvanizing star presence. (Translation: Gale Harold is no Kiefer Sutherland, or Wentworth Miller for that matter.) The roles are generically written and formulaically played. It's really going to be up to the storytelling to carry this one, and subtlety is likely to have little to do with it. If there's hope for Vanished, it will be as a guilty pleasure. And for those with a little patience,
...
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