Question: I have been a huge fan of Friday Night Lights since you introduced me to it. It is absolutely the best show out there right now, and I loved the season premiere. All my favorite characters were back with their original depth and authenticity. I am interested to see where the new storylines go, especially with Tyra and Landry. But I did have to remind myself that this is dramatic television and not real life after that scene (you know the one), because it provoked some anxiety for me. Being a person of strong Christian faith myself, I am always glad to see a character on TV embracing faith, and they are very few and far between. One of the reasons I loved Studio 60 was Sarah Paulson's portrayal of an intelligent, down-to-earth Christian woman, even though she had to endure much ridicule from other characters. My fear is that Lila's conversion will be written as the pathetic attempt by a desperate girl to make up for past mistakes and deal with disappointment in her own family. ...
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D.L. Hughley
Last year at this time, comedian D.L. Hughley was on one of the hottest shows on TV. At least that's what everyone thought Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip would be until it slowly faded away into irrelevancy. Nonetheless, Hughley quickly moved on and is now going off in his new HBO stand-up special, "Unapologetic" (airing Saturday at 10 pm/ET). Here, Hughley talks about why he's not looking for forgiveness, the reason he thinks Studio 60 tanked, and whether or not he can take a joke like the victims on his recent BET hidden-camera show, S.O.B.
TVGuide.com: Why is the special called "Unapologetic"?D.L. Hughley: Because nowadays when anybody passi
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Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip box art courtesy Warner Home Video
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip arrives on DVD Oct. 16 in a six-disc, 22-episode set.... Tonight's the night that ABC's 20/20 sticks its nose in Dateline: To Catch a Predator's business. The sucker punches start at 10 pm/ET.... Marlo Thomas will guest on Ugly Betty this fall as a jewelry company owner with a "thing" for younger men — namely, Daniel.... ABC Family's Lincoln Heights set a series high with its Tuesday Season 2 premiere, drawing 1.6 million total viewers. That's a 14 percent increase over the show's January launch.... EchoStar's Dish Network has agreed to host the Big Ten Network, and just in time for this weekend's college football games, says TV Week.
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Question: I just finished watching the final episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. What a shame that this show is not coming back! I can't believe that the network kept 30 Rock and canceled this show. Do you think it would have survived on a network other than NBC? Is it possible that Studio 60 came too close on the heels of The West Wing? Or was it just one show too many behind the scenes of SNL? If you had told me last summer that 60 would die and 30 would live, I never would have believed you!
Answer: Based on the pilot, I wouldn't have believed it, either. But by February, when the show went on its fateful hiatus not to return until the postseason burn-off (which I have recorded but not watched), I believed it all too well. Like the masses, I found the show had become tiresome and the characters exasperating whether on their self-important soapboxes or suddenly acting like they were in some silly romantic comedy. And while I hear the final episodes improved, it was clearly a
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Anne Heche in Men in Trees by Jack Rowand/ABC
Reminder, tonight at 10 pm/ET marks the series finale of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as well as the return (albeit just repeats) of Men In Trees, starting with the pilot episode.... TNT/TBS have snatched up cable rights to Rush Hour 3, six weeks before it even hits theaters. Per Variety, the price tag will be 12 percent of the domestic gross.... Steve Martin is penning his autobiography, Born Standing Up, to hit stores in November. (I just started Chevy Chase's bio and it's... OK).... Bridge to Terabithia and Ghost Rider topped last week's DVD sales and rental charts, respectively.
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Question: Exactly how mad will you be when Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip scores multiple Emmy nominations, including best drama, best actor (Matthew Perry), best supporting actor (Bradley Whitford) and best actress (Amanda Peet). I know it's going to confuse me much as the Russian translation at the end of Rocky IV did. But based on Aaron Sorkin's track record, the show's continued critical support and the cast's star power, I just know it's going to happen. Plus it fits that Emmy mold so perfectly, despite its many obvious and pointed flaws. If it takes a nomination away from Friday Night Lights, I just won't know how to react.
Answer: Continued critical support? Who are you reading? Beyond that, what are you smoking? I suppose there's an extreme outside chance that one or more of these high-profile actors may get a nomination, but talk about your dark horses. And Sorkin for writing? Maybe for the pilot, before it all fell apart, but even that will be tainted by the show's unhappy fate.
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Question: When a semi-quality show like Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip gets canceled by NBC, what are the chances of a smaller network like the CW picking it up? Is it a cost issue, a contract issue or something else that keeps it from happening? After all, Studio 60 likely has a bigger fan base than any of the shows the CW is currently airing. I recall the WB picked up Grounded for Life after Fox dropped it a few years back.
Answer: First off, thanks for giving me a laugh with your description of Studio 60 as "semi-quality." How true. Second, there are any number of reasons why no network, and particularly not the CW, would resurrect this show. It is too expensive, true, but there's also no way Studio 60, with its cast of adults (though many acted like children), fits the CW brand. No one's going to pony up to try to keep alive a show that costs this much money. It's a lot different with a sitcom, and (if memory serves) when Grounded for Life moved from Fox to the WB, it took a budget
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Question: NBC has had three very different shows air after Heroes this season (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Black Donnellys, and now The Real Wedding Crashers) and they've all failed. This is the same problem ABC had with Lost. For years they tried to launch a hit show after Lost, but every single one of them failed. Because they couldn't find a show to follow Lost successfully (and to avoid the American Idol results show, which by the way has become so bloated it's almost unwatchable), ABC just moved it to 10 pm. Do you think NBC will eventually have to do the same with Heroes?
Answer: It may be inevitable, but for now, NBC is trying to use Heroes as a tent pole for the night, and there is an argument that, despite the occasional spurt of grisly violence (the scooped-open heads, for instance), the comic-book tone of Heroes is better suited for an earlier time period than 10 pm. Journeyman (which I haven't seen the full pilot of yet) is at least more compatible with the genre of
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A funny thing about buzz: You never know where it's going to lead you. Sometimes into a dead end, other times into the Next Big Thing. (Hi, Heroes.)
Looking back over the wild zigs and zags taken by the winners and losers from this year's freshman TV class, it's hard not to notice how many sleepers became keepers and how few of the sure things lived up to their hype.
With the networks unveiling their new fall lineups this week, I found myself reflecting on the shows we'd labeled "buzzworthy" in our Fall Preview issue last September (Heroes wasn't among them). As always in TV land, you win some, you lose some. And some things you can't possibly see coming. Case in point: ABC's family saga Brothers & Sisters, which generated negative publicity during a turbulent gestation of recastings and rewrites. The final pilot was
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Question: Back in the early '80s, Hill Street Blues was moved from one night to another and sometimes went missing before it found an audience. Someone had faith in Blues. After Blues found success, it ushered in a period of quality drama and, with Bill Cosby's help, took NBC to the No. 1 position in the ratings. With quality programs on NBC like Studio 60 and Friday Night Lights getting critical acclaim but not finding an audience or a working time slot, what will it take for quality programs to find a champion to keep them on the air for more than a few episodes? NBC's ratings haven't been this low since its inception, and they're still dropping. They have nothing to lose by keeping these quality programs on the air, yet they put on reality programs like The Real Wedding Crashers, which drop the rating points even further. Quality programs are like fine wines: It takes time for them to mature, while garbage will always remain garbage. What will it take for NBC to take a stand on ...
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