I mentioned earlier on this blog that I’ve decided to save hours and sanity by skipping the American Idol auditions this season. I make an exception, at least partially, for the Hollywood round, which is one of my favorite parts …
House Pulls the Plug. Too Soon or Too Late?
The patient had been diagnosed some time ago by TV-biz observers, but Wednesday Fox called House M.D.‘s time of death for the end of this season, after eight years on air. Fox cited “the decision” that Hugh Laurie and the …
JC Penney and Ellen, Lowe’s and All-American Muslim: A Tale of Two Bigotries
JC Penney did the right thing this week, standing by its celebrity spokeswoman Ellen DeGeneres despite a conservative activist group’s demand that it drop association with her because she’s gay. The group, One Million Moms, asked Penney to “remain neutral in the culture war” by firing a gay celebrity. (“Neutrality” must mean not …
Twimmolation Alert: Roland Martin Gets His Ascot in Hot Water at CNN
The broadcast of the Super Bowl inspired hundreds of thousands of tweets on Twitter, and a few of them just got analyst Roland S. Martin suspended from CNN. The political commentator was criticized by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance …
Sorkin’s Newsroom Plans Premiere, Adds to Vast History of Fake TV Networks
According to a report in Mediabistro, HBO is moving ahead with plans for a summer premiere of Aaron Sorkin’s cable-news drama The Newsroom, possibly on June 24. The report also says that there’s a new name for the fictional cable …
The Morning After: Hey, Dollface!
One fun thing about seeing episodes of shows in advance is going on Twitter and watching people’s reactions blow up at a certain scene you know will freak them out. In the case of the two-hour premiere of The River, that would …
The Morning After: NBC, Finally Something to Sing About?
The preliminary ratings are in, and it looks like NBC’s Smash, whose ads have been tattooed on the insides of your eyelids for three months, had a strong first airing at 10 p.m. We’ll have to see how well the numbers hold up …
TV Tonight: The River
There’s a school of thought that says the scariest thing in a horror movie (or TV show) is the thing you can’t see. Another approach is to scare the hell out of the audience with images they can see–the more imaginatively …
Madonna, Clint and the Rest of Super Bowl XLVI Halftime
I went into last night’s Madonna Super Bowl halftime show expecting to hate it: yet another performer whose appeal can charitably be described as “nostalgic” (see The Rolling Stones, The Who, etc.) blasting out a set of oldies …
Election Watch: Romney Wins, Loses Trump Primary
The Trump primary is over. Thursday in Las Vegas, Donald Trump took to the podium to endorse Mitt Romney, who just over a month ago made headlines by spurning a debate that Trump planned to moderate in Iowa. With Trump’s backing of his “tough, smart sharp” fellow businessman, we are probably done—fortunately or unfortunately—with the …
Stars in Need of TV Shows to Be Stars In
The other day here at Tuned in, while remarking on Lizzy Caplan‘s guest turn in New Girl, I said that someone needed to give her her own TV show to star in, stat. Yesterday, Showtime announced that Caplan has been cast as the …
Dead Tree Alert: Smash: Broadway’s West Wing, or Its Studio 60?
NBC’s musical-about-a-musical, Smash, debuts next Monday, but after the massive promotional blitz, you’d be excused for feeling like you’ve already seen the entire 15-episode season. (The pilot has been available for streaming and download for a few weeks now.) NBC has high hopes for the show–I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t do huge …
The Morning After: Portlandia
I have not, if you are a regular reader of this blog and have been wondering, given up on American Idol, not yet. But I’ve sworn off watching the audition rounds, because of, um, my religion. (Got-other-things-to-do-ism.) …