“Too Late, Play’s Over. You Waited Too Long to Make a Decision. Now We Lost the Game Because of You, Now We’re Not Going to State, and Now the Whole Town of Pajiba Hates You and You’re Never Going to Get Laid. Fact!”
The Daily Trade Round-Up / The TV Whore
Feb. 27, 2008
Trade News | February 27, 2008 | Comments (60)
Sure, the second season of “Friday Night Lights” was not nearly as glorious as Season One, but it still had enough redeeming moments that I don’t want the last episode we saw to be the last episode. So glory be to those who have reported that there’s a sliver of hope that “Friday Night Lights” could complete a spectacular 4th-and-26 play to make it to a third season. Seems that the NBC folks like the show enough, despite its crummy ratings, to try to keep hope alive. In that vein, they’ve tried talking to some other networks about sharing the football show — so far, they’ve reportedly spoken with TNT, the CW, and whoever it is that owns stations like E! and G4. TNT seems to make the most sense out of these, although I wouldn’t care if it landed on Oxygen, just as long as it landed somewhere. Now if some sort of arrangement is made, no idea on how it might work. Folks have speculated that it could be like the “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” deal, where episodes premiered on USA and then popped up on NBC a little later. But it’s hard to say if that deal could act as a true blueprint since USA and NBC both have the same parent company, making it much easier to agree to schedule and finance mumbo-jumbo. Plus, before we get our hopes terribly high, word also has it that NBC has put a relatively high sticker price on the deal, giving other networks pause. So this is nowhere near a sure thing, and the realist in me expects that it’ll all amount to a wish in the hand, but I’ll keep my eyes clear and my heart full for right now.
However, there’s another NBC show that we know for sure is dead: “Las Vegas.” That’s not nearly as shocking to me as the fact that the show actually got a full five seasons. It’s rare that a show runs that long without me having seen a single minute, let alone an episode, but there you go. All I know about the show is that Magnum P.I. took over for James CAAAAAAAN this year, so I’m sad for the Mustache’s loss. But otherwise, whatever with the whatever.
Hopping online, CBS and NBC both made similar announcements last week that they’re putting some old shows online. CBS, which plans to post a ton from its extensive Television Classics Library on cbs.com, is starting with all three seasons of the original “Star Trek,” the first two seasons of “The Twilight Zone,” the first seasons of “Melrose Place” and “Hawaii Five-O,” and in a move that surely caused Patty and Selma to squeal with delight, the first season of “MacGyver.” NBC, meanwhile, announced a bunch of shows that will start streaming on various sites (nbc.com, scifi.com, chillertv.com and sleuthchannel.com). Among other things, you’ll be able to find the original “Battlestar Galactica,” the motherfucking “A-Team,” “Buck Rogers,” “Swamp Thing” and, fuck-to-the-yeah, “Miami Vice.” The internet is finally living up to its potential people!
In more hilarious news, there was a “Jericho” panel at the recent Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention, complete with fourteen cast and crew members. The funny part? There were only about 80 fans who bothered to show up. When asked about how the show could be saved, one of the executive producers told folks to “watch and get your friends to watch.” So it will only take 300 viewers to give the show a third season? Nuts indeed.
In more sad news, well, I don’t want to say, because some of y’all might lynch me. But if you’re all caught up with the current season of “The Wire,” I think you can guess who’s obituary I’m linking you to. (And for the record, while I had my qualms about a certain suspect plotline early in the season, this show is wrapping up so god damned well, it hurts.) Seriously, don’t click the link if you’re trying to stay spoiler free, because you won’t forgive yourself (can you avoid the shiny, red button? the big, shiny, happy, red button blue link?).
Fans of “30 Rock” (which should be all of you!) know that Edie Falco recently showed off her comedy chops in an excellent guest run. Well Showtime dug it enough that they’ve signed Falco to a new dark comedy pilot. The half-hour single camera comedy, untitled at the moment, will feature Falco as, according to the press release, “a strong-willed, iconoclastic New York City nurse juggling the frenzied grind of an urban hospital and an equally challenging personal life,” and will “explore the human fallout from our broken medical system.” Not much to go on there, but Showtime’s done pretty well with its shows of late, so here’s hoping the pilot is good enough to warrant a series order. And in other casting news, CBS has signed bug-eyed Rufus Sewell to a new Jerry Bruckheimer-produced drama pilot, “Eleventh Hour.” The show is based on a British limited series about a government adviser who investigates science abuse. That miniseries starred Patrick Stewart, who is infinitely preferable to Sewell, and it presumably did not have Bruckheimer’s dirty hands all over it. Which is to say, I’m skeptical of this show, at best.
Over at NBC, meanwhile, the Peacock has ordered up 13 episodes of “Robinson Crusoe.” NBC head honcho Ben Silverman spins it as a lovely new take on the almost 200-year-old tale, saying: “It’s part ‘MacGyver,’ part contemporary morality tale about race and personal discovery, part comedy and part Castaway meets ‘Survivor.’” Well shit, it’s gotta be better than “Lipstick Jungle,” which NBC just ordered six more scripts for. Christ, they’re just giving money away over there, aren’t they?
With the writers’ strike over, I guess ABC decided that it didn’t need to keep “Miss/Guided” in its pocket for the fall. So the Judy Greer comedy is once again going to be a mid-season show, with a back-to-back episode premiere set for March 20 (and a sneak preview on March 18, after an extended “Dancing with the Stars”). This show only has seven episodes to earn itself a round two, and I’m not holding my breath. But I’m tuning in anyway because Judy Greer is one of the most underappreciated comediennes out there, damn it!
I’ll leave you with this, just in case you haven’t already seen it on a gajillion other sites the past two days — you gotta give it to Jimmy Kimmel, because this may not be as funny as the original, but the man sure knows how to put together a celebrity-loaded retort:
Seth Freilich is Pajiba’s television editor. He’s fucking neither Matt Damon nor Ben Affleck. Nor, uhm, anyone else at the moment. Hrrm. … He’ll be in the corner quietly sobbing if you need him.
Comments
Posted by: Quirky- at February 27, 2008 8:30 AM
I loved the original, but this was just as awesomely fucked up as the original. Highlights include: Harrison Ford blowing a kiss to the F**king couple, Angelina's better half showing up as courier man, & uh, that's all I remember. Leave me alone; I saw it the other day!
Downlights (yes, it's a word!): Cameron Diaz, the Good Charlotte twins, & McLovin'. Sorry, I don't feel the love for this second rate 'Vote Pedro' douche.