Anderson Cooper and Jeff Corwin courtesy CNN
OK, kids. Earth Day is right around the corner and, like bitch being the new black, green seems to be the new gay: hard for some folks to understand, but totally making the world more fabulous.So let’s gather round the paperless computer screen and run down some of the eco-awesome programs now available on DVD.Planet in Peril — Global warming meets good ol’ hotties in this dazzling CNN special that sends Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and wildlifer Jeff Corwin around the globe to check out the myriad treats mucking up our environment. Once you see what the guys uncover in an Asian market, you may never want some “herbs” again.Buy Planet in Peril on Amazon.comLiving with Ed — Sounds like a sitcom, but tastes like The Osbournes-meet-An Inconvenient Truth. Devout conservationist Ed Begley, Jr. and his less-green wife Rachelle open their eco-tricked-out home to the cameras as they attempt to save energy, recycle and reduce their carbon footprint in gener...
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Michael C. Hall as Dexter by Randy Tepper/Showtime
Emmys, schmemmys. When it comes to rewarding the very best of TV (and radio), I tend to look at the annual announcement of the prestigious Peabody Awards as my guidepost. Administered through the University of Georgia, the Peabodys is hardly a stuffy institution. This year’s eclectic list of honorees, released earlier today, ranges from terrific critical breakthroughs like NBC’s 30 Rock and AMC’s Mad Men to such deliciously offbeat choices as Showtime’s darkly delicious Dexter and Bravo’s stylish Project Runway, the first reality show ever to make the cut. (For a full list of this year’s and past years’ winners, go here.)I have come to know Peabody director Horace Newcomb through our joint participation on many AFI Awards jury panels, and he’s as serious, and seriously open-minded, about quality in both news and entertainment programming as it gets. This year’s Peabody Board chose from more than 1,000 entries to select this year’s 35...
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The Sopranos - Season 6 Part 2 [Blu-ray] courtesy HBO Home Video
HBO has joined the parade to Blu-ray after Warner Bros, its distributor, announced on Friday that they were dropping HD-DVD in May 2008. The Warner Bros announcement could be the event that ends the war between high-definition formats. HD-DVD has the exclusive support of Universal and Paramount/DreamWorks, while Blu-ray has Fox/MGM, Warner Bros, Disney, Sony and Lionsgate. Warner Bros, which holds about 20 percent of the market, was a huge win for the Blu-ray group, and leaves Blu-ray with roughly 75 percent of the HD market. The Warner Bros decision has influenced New Line, along with HBO, to make the switch to Blu-ray, but BBC Home Video is bucking the trend and "will evaluate the marketplace before committing to one format" (according to the studio); the studio has four high-definition releases planned for 2008, available on both formats, and has sold more copies of Planet Earth on HD-DVD. Recent notable Blu-ray releases include The Simpsons (Fox), Pirates of the Caribbean: At Wo...
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Question: What are you thoughts on Shark Week? I think the idea is a great move for Discovery Channel, giving them some much-needed press. All of the shows are very well-done and can be both exciting and informative. I hope they start showing these fantastic shows in HD in the future, since no one beats Discovery in the HD department.
Answer: Actually, it looks like Discovery HD Theater is going shark-mad this weekend (Saturday and Sunday), so you're getting your wish. Shark Week has for 20 years been one of the canniest marketing concepts on cable. It's always a big hit, and with Planet Earth earlier this year, it's another reminder of how powerful a brand the Discovery Networks have become. And while we're talking Discovery, here's a reminder that its sister channel, Animal Planet, is launching a new season of the irresistible Meerkat Manor next Friday (Aug. 10) ...
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I'm extremely excited for April 24, because that's the day one of my most anticipated titles is released. No, it's not WKRP, which is plagued with music-licensing issues. It's the BBC release of Planet Earth. This 11-episode series explores our planet like no other series has done, from the North Pole to the South Pole, it's all covered in this program. They spent $25 million and 2,000 days in the field shooting material for the program, and they did it all using high-definition cameras. Narrated by the legendary David Attenborough (the Discovery Channel version is narrated by Sigourney Weaver), this series is being released on DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD, and all formats are among the top sellers on Amazon (as of now, DVD is No. 1, HD DVD No. 8 and Blu-ray No. 19 — their list is updated hourly). The DVD set also includes a bonus program, "Planet Earth: The Future," and 110 minutes of behind-the-scenes material that isn't available on the higher-priced Blu-ray and HD DVD releases.T...
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Sunday's first three installments of Discovery Channel's Planet Earth, averaging 5.7 million viewers, were the the No. 1-, 2- and 4-ranked basic-cable programs of the week.... Serve the cheerleader, reap the ratings: ABC Family's Sunday airing of Hayden Panettiere's Bring It On: All or Nothing was the cabler's most-watched movie premiere of all time, with 4.8 million viewers.... Jimmy Kimmel and NBA star LeBron James will cohost ESPN's ESPY Awards, to be broadcast July 15.... Bobby arrives on DVD April 10.... The wife of Oliver Hudson (Rules of Engagement) will give Goldie Hawn her second grandchild in August, reports E!.
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Today, TV showed me how completely amazing the Earth is. And when I say amazing, I mean it in more than one way. Earlier this morning, as I searched for something to help wake me up during my Sunday laziness, I sat through an hour of WE's loud, obnoxious and eye-rolling series Bridezillas. Now, I know this show isn't new, and I've caught a few wedding-day freak-outs here and there, but never have I been so entranced by the monster that is Bridezilla. In this particular episode, the engaged and enraged wife-to-be wanted so badly to be a celebrity that she turned her nuptials into a red-carpet affair. But I'm not going to harp on the style choices she made, because that really has nothing to do with why I couldn't change the channel. I was baffled by the fact that someone could become so angry at everyone around her during what was supposed to be the most important time of her life. Forcing her fiancé to get a tattoo of her name the night before their wedding, yelling at the limo...
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Planet Earth
Natural beauty takes on a whole new meaning with the awesome Planet Earth, an 11-part BBC documentary series that made its American debut last Sunday on Discovery (see listings for upcoming episodes). The numbers behind the images — more than 2,000 days, 204 locations, 60 countries, five continents and 70 crew members — can't begin to convey the wonder of the series, which became a smash in Britain when it aired last year. So to prepare you for your global journey, here's some behind-the-scenes scoop.
1. Powerful high-def cameras go where few eyes could. "One of the benefits of high-definition," executive producer Alastair Fothergill says, "is the very powerful lens. Cameraman Mark Smith could film a snow leopar
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Is this Henry VIII or Henry the Sixpack? Showtime's robustly entertaining 10-part historical drama The Tudors (premiering April 1 at 10 pm/ET) presents the young king as a hunka-hunka burning royal who often has trouble deciding whether to rule with his head or his heart — or some other organ. The show's theme song could be (apologies to Camelot) "I Wonder Who the King Is Doing Tonight."
He's played with riveting intensity and bristling sensuality by Irish-born Jonathan Rhys Meyers — perhaps the only actor to successfully impersonate fabled royalty and Elvis "the King" Presley. This Henry the horndog is fueled by lust: for war, for power, for a son and, wife aside, for female conquests, including the notorious Anne Boleyn (a sly, kittenish Natalie Dormer).
The Tudors frames this legendary love match as a calculated chess game: Anne teasing and manipulating Henry at her father's
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Topic One: Dancing with the Stars. One long grin, that show is. I’d forgotten what a fun lark it can be, after the last few months of watching American Idol take itself way too seriously. Nothing’s really at stake on the Dancing show, except minor issues like dignity and rescuing B-list reputations from the celebrity coal bin. Early front-runners: Joey Fatone (especially if he keeps shedding the pounds as he dances) and Apolo Anton Ohno, the closest thing the show has to a hottie. (Possible miscalculation of keeping up his skating schedule when he should be perfecting his dance moves. He wasn’t nearly as electrifying as he needs to be.) And because a female is overdue a win on this show, let’s not count out Laila Ali, an interesting mix of athleticism, aggression and (when it matters) unexpected grace and charm.Charm really is the selling point of this ABC phenom. Even a klutz like Billy Ray Cyrus probably earned a few pity points for being a good sport. And I...
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