Question: O, casting guru! Any chance that you could put a bug in the ear of the Chuck producers? I'd love to see Andrea Parker, Zachary Levi's Less Than Perfect cast mate, play, well, just about anyone!
Answer: Consider bug firmly planted in Josh Schwartz's iPhone ear.
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Question: I've seen a bunch of news items recently about Ugly Betty, and I was wondering what your opinion of it was. To me, the premise just seems awful. Like in The Devil Wears Prada, we've got an attractive woman who we're supposed to pretend is "ugly," and then we've got the cutting-edge topic of the fashion industry. Wow, it's not like anyone's made fun of them before. What's next, a sock-hop-and-ice-cream-social comedy? I like America Ferrera, but previous shows along this theme, such as Veronica's Closet and Less than Perfect, have just been shrill and annoying.
Answer: The worst sin in writing about or analyzing TV seriously is to judge a show simply by its premise. While it's entirely likely that you are predisposed not to enjoy Ugly Betty, it's always all about the execution. Ugly Betty is not a traditional sitcom, it's a hybrid of comedy and soap, and Betty herself is nothing like the heroine of Prada (Betty is much more extreme), except perhaps for her inexperience in this
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Question: Matt, I'm a huge fan! My question is about ABC's comedies (According to Jim, Rodney, Hope & Faith, Crumbs, Sons & Daughters, George Lopez, Freddie and Less than Perfect). Which ones do you think will survive another season? I think it's time for According to Jim and Hope & Faith to go. But I love Rodney and Less than Perfect. Creatively, I feel they have a lot to offer. Do you think there is at all a chance for a TGIF comeback? What are your thoughts on this?
Answer: Of all the shows you mentioned, I would only even consider watching Sons & Daughters regularly. But I know I'm in the minority on that one, given the puny ratings it drew this spring, which makes me doubt it will return, barring a miracle. (There are some intriguing comedy concepts kicking around ABC for next season, and maybe ABC would keep Sons & Daughters alive as a companion piece. But that's probably a pipe dream.) Given that Rodney was put on hiatus before it could play out its second season, and that Less
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Question: It was said that Less Than Perfect was returning. Is it, or has it been dropped?
Answer: After a nearly season-long hiatus, ABC is bringing the show back on Tuesdays starting April 18 (airing at 9:30 pm/ET in Commander in Chief's old time period, now that that has shifted to Thursdays). It's going to get creamed there, with little support and fanfare on a ludicrously overcrowded night, so don't get too attached. I think this is finally the end of that show's road. (I just got a preview tape with three new episodes, so if I watch them before the premiere date and am favorably impressed, I'll weigh in. ...
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On those rare occasions when the networks realize they've made a grievous mistake and fix it, it seems only right that we should acknowledge it and say thanks.
So thanks, CBS, for doing the right thing by The Amazing Race, and more important, for the show's family audience, by moving the show back to an earlier time period. As has been much discussed since the show was moved to 10 pm/ET this spring, with a season far superior than last fall's "family" edition, the new time period was simply on too late for many of its fans to watch it live. Starting next Wednesday, April 5, Race will now air Wednesdays at 8 pm/ET for (presumably) the rest of the season. (Crime-drama repeats will take over Race's slot, and struggling freshman sitcoms Out of Practice and Courting Alex will di
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But do yourself a favor and use a pencil, not a pen. Ready? ABC is returning Commander in Chief to its schedule on Thursdays beginning April 13 (at 10:01 pm/ET), bumping Primetime to Fridays (at 9) until May 25, when it reclaims its regular Thursdays-at-10 (or occasionally 10:01) time slot. Finally, Less Than Perfect comes back on April 18 (at 9:30), if only to remind me that, despite what I thought, no, Sara Rue's cute sitcom did not get canceled two years ago.
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Kevin James, The King of Queens
This week the networks began meeting with ad-agency execs to talk about what's in development for the 2006-07 season. That means it's time for producers of current shows with less-than-robust ratings to start worrying about getting picked up for next season. Here's what industry insiders are telling the Biz.
ABC: The network's comedies are having a tough year in the ratings, but you can't cancel all of them. Rodney, Hope & Faith, Crumbs and Less than Perfect aren't likely to make the cut. According to Jim, George Lopez and Freddie have a chance of returning. Since ABC has two more hours to program in the fall now that football has moved to NBC, shows that would otherwise be doomed have a chance. We're talking Invasion and Commander in Chief. Their survival depends on the strength of the network's new-program development.
CBS: Another season of The King of Queens depends on whether the n
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Sarah Joy Brown, the wildly popular General Hospital and As the World Turns grad, hits the big screen today in Big Momma's House 2. She returns as an FBI agent who is oblivious to the crush another fed (Less Than Perfect's Zachary Levi) has on her. "I’m not really even oblivious to the crush that he has, it’s more that he just annoys me to death," Brown told TVGuide.com's own Matt Webb Mitovich. "Zach Levi is going to be the biggest thing since sliced bread. You have got to put that in there." Consider it done, Sarah.
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Question: I have always been a fan of your column and just love your taste in shows, but I was a little disappointed to hear that you have given up on comedies from network TV. I have been so loyal to certain comedies over the years, like the gems Everybody Loves Raymond, the dearly departed Friends and the laugh-out-loud riot Scrubs. But recently I have realized that networks are putting on more procedural dramas and reality shows than traditional 30-minute comedies. I admit I find myself watching sitcoms like Less than Perfect and Still Standing, which are both very mediocre, to fill my needs, but I miss the old sitcoms of yesteryear. My question, though, is that I have heard many good things about comedies coming this fall, like Everybody Hates Chris, How I Met Your Mother and Twins, and was wondering what you thought of them. I know that one of these fall seasons there will be a new comedy to love, like my old faves Roseanne and Mad About You. At least we still have Scrubs and ...
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When Andy Dick's name is mentioned, perhaps you think of his off-the-wall antics on NewsRadio or his old, self-titled MTV show. Or maybe you associate him with the Machiavellian psycho he's playing on his new MTV show, the reality spoof The Assistant (airing Mondays at 10:30 pm/ET), or his scene-stealing as a pencil-necked office grunt on ABC's "late, lamented" workplace laffer, Less than Perfect. Then again, you might know him best as the rogue male who's had so many brushes with the law that Cops could make him a regular. Whatever your impression of the kooky actor is, it doesn't matter; it's going to change once you've read this TV Guide Online article, a Q&A so candid that you may be moved to tears (or something). Heck, by the time we had said our goodbyes, both the funnyman and his interviewer had learned something new. Could be that you will, too.
TV Guide Online: Why did you want to do The Assistant? Were you jealous
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