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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 911 days ago

TLC to Exploit Jon & Kate Divorce with Great Care, Sensitivity

By James Poniewozik

I was off-campus for a good chunk of press tour yesterday, so I missed the presentations from Discovery Networks. The biggest news to come out of them was the network’s announcement of plans for resuming Jon & Kate Plus Eight, starring the now-divorcing Gosselins and their eight children.

Tuned In
Tuned In+911 days ago

Dead Tree Alert: What the Media Could Learn from Shark Week

By James Poniewozik

  I’m not sure exactly what this says about our world, but one of the most interesting critiques of the media I’ve seen in a while is a Discovery Channel Shark Week documentary airing next week. Sharkbite Summer takes a look at 2001′s “Summer of the Shark”—memorialized, among other places, on a TIME magazine cover—in [...]

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Tuned In+Television | 912 days ago

Seinfeld Cast Reuniting. For Real This Time.

By James Poniewozik

The cast of Seinfeld is reuniting. But not on Seinfeld. A fictional, yet real, meta-reunion of the classic sitcom is going to be the story arc of the next season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, debuting Sept. 20 on HBO, Larry David announced at the TV critics’ press tour today. How did Larry David decide to [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 912 days ago

The Emmys Get a Trim

By James Poniewozik

One more non-press-tour news item: How are the Emmys going to make room for all those additional nominees in its big categories? Apparently, Variety is reporting, by cutting some not-so-big categories from the telecast. The awards for movie and miniseries, and for drama-series writing, will be presented out of primetime. Oh, and guess what? You [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 912 days ago

Lifetime Serves Models for Breakfast

By James Poniewozik

TV press tour is full of delicious ironies. Yesterday, for instance, I went to a BBC America panel for InBetweeners, a promising-looking awkward-teen comedy from a Flight of the Conchords writer. There, I saw BBC America chief Garth Ancier praise one of the show’s influences, Freaks and Geeks. Ancier, while programming head of NBC, famously [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 912 days ago

In Other TV News: Rockford's Return and Feminist Porn

By James Poniewozik

I’m going to be doing some non-press-tour business today, so not sure how much tour-blogging I’ll manage. In the meantime, here are a few tidbits from elsewhere:  * How do you know that Ben Silverman is leaving NBC? The network is still remaking its old shows, but better ones this time. NBC has reported signed [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 912 days ago

The Morning After: Skipping Dinner

By James Poniewozik

There are a lot of things you get to do at TV critics’ press tour: hobnob with executives and actors, pitch questions at producers, see previews of upcoming series. One thing you don’t get to do much: watch TV. Thus, last night I managed to miss Top Chef Masters, as the winners of earlier rounds [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 913 days ago

Spartacus: There Will Be Blood. And Naughty Bits.

By James Poniewozik

Today at press tour, Starz played a trailer of its Roman drama Spartacus, debuting in January 2010. It’s similar to the one below, except that ours had more nudity. This job still has its benefits:  So: lots of slow-motion blood. Lots of skin. Lots of stylized violence. It’s 300, the series! Will there also be [...]

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Tuned In+913 days ago

MTV, Joan Rivers Embrace New Era of Nice

By James Poniewozik

When MTV says that it’s focusing on making earnest, socially minded TV shows, something weird is going on in America. When Joan Rivers then follows MTV to say she’s making an uplifting, aspirational TV show, something really weird is going on in America. Or at least in TV land. (And, in Rivers’ case, on TV [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 913 days ago

The 1960s and the Future at AMC's Party

By James Poniewozik

AMC threw a cocktail party at the TV critics’ press tour last night. Was there a theme? Well, when you’re the maker of Mad Men, cocktails are the theme. It takes care of itself.  The network, which a few years ago you would have confused with the maker of the 1970s’ classic Pacer and Gremlin, [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 913 days ago

The Morning After: Big Love

By James Poniewozik

Last night, Fox debuted More to Love, the dating show in which a plus-sized man sought a date from a bevy of plus-sized beauties. Like many reality shows, its premise scandalized some people before the show even aired; as in many such instances, the reality was much more tame. More to Love does not seem [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 914 days ago

CNN's Klein on Dobbs and Birthers

By James Poniewozik

At TV press tour, there are the things networks want to talk about and the things you want to ask them about. CNN president Jon Klein wanted to talk about John King, Christiane Amanpour and Soledad O’Brien, who joined him on stage to promote, respectively, State of the Union, a new international-news show and the [...]

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Tuned In+914 days ago

FX Pins a New Badge on Olyphant

By James Poniewozik

Right now at the TV critics’ press tour, Joy Behar is on stage, announcing her new HLN talk show (because she has gone too long without a forum for her opinions). But I’d rather tell you about the fact that FX has picked up Lawman, an Elmore Leonard adaptation with Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood’s Sheriff Bullock) [...]

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Tuned In+914 days ago

Lost, NBC Try to Rewrite History

By James Poniewozik

Little time to blog this morning, but I’ll start you off with some discussion topics: * I’m still not sure how seriously to take all the videos at the Lost Comic-Con panel, but having seen some of it so far (the hotel wifi was not being entirely co-operative), they’re at least thought-provoking. Several of the [...]

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Tuned In+915 days ago

Programming Note

By James Poniewozik

I’m traveling and on assignment for the next couple of days, so don’t expect too much blogging Monday or Tuesday. Try to be strong. For the children’s sake. Actually, this begins a weird several weeks for me, so here’s a quick overview of what to expect, or not:

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 915 days ago

The Morning After: Comic Drama

By James Poniewozik

I’m heading West for a few days at the Television Critics’ Association summer press tour (more on that in a bit), so you have the place to yourselves for today. While I’m en route, feel free to talk over any of the weekend’s TV: Hung, True Blood, the stunning final installment of Torchwood: Children of [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 918 days ago

Comic-Con News: Caprica Gets (Another) Debut Date

By James Poniewozik

Maureen Ryan passes along the announcement from SyFy that the Battlestar Galactica prequel, Caprica, will debut on Jan. 22, 2010. (God, just typing “2010″ looks like science fiction.) The two-hour pilot will air at 9 p.m. E.T., then the show will move into BSG’s 10 p.m. timeslot.  Or you can watch the pilot now—since it [...]

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Tuned In+918 days ago

Dead Tree Alert: One More Doll in the House

By James Poniewozik

  In this week’s print TIME, I give a brief endorsement to the upcoming season one DVD of Dollhouse (along with that of the British Life on Mars), which comes out next week.  Normally when I review a series DVD, I focus on the series itself first and any extras secondarily, if at all. But [...]