Shot Through the Heart, and You’re to Blame … You Give Pajiba a Bad Name
The Daily Trade Round-Up / The TV Whore
Oct. 10, 2007
Trade News | October 10, 2007 | Comments (46)
I’m not sure how the Pajiba readership feels about this flick, but I suspect many of you like it, if not love it. Fine. But I absolutely hate The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I won’t get into the reasons because this isn’t a movie review, and I’m not a movie critic. Suffice to say, I loathe the film. However, there is one line in the movie which has stuck with me over the years, which is when one of the drag queens (or maybe a tranny — I don’t remember) growls, with a wonderful Australian accent, “No more fucking Abba.”
I bring this up because, in my best Australian accent, I find myself now screaming at the top of my lungs: “No more fucking Peter, Bjorn & John.” Y’all surely know the song “Young Folks,” and even if you don’t know it by name, you know it by its intro whistling (you can catch the YouTube video here). Now I have nothing against the tune — that whistling is mighty catchy. But over the last two weeks, I have watched an unhealthy amount of TV and have heard this damn song incessantly. The pilot of “Dirty Sexy Money” used the intro beats and whistling as background music, while the second episode of “Journeyman” used the song rather more prominently. Those are the two examples I can specifically name for you, but I know that I heard many times over (in at least two or three more shows, plus in at least one commercial). Seriously, Hollywood music-picking types, enough already. If you simply must feature some background whistling in your shows, can’t you please turn to “Patience?” Axl Rose could use the royalty check. [Another option: The theme to Gary’s Shandling’s show (the opening theme to Gary’s show). — DR]
Someone who doesn’t need a royalty check is J.J. Abrams, who’s been a busy little beaver. First, his production company (Bad Robot) has been given a pilot order by ABC for a drama tentatively called “Boundaries.” The show comes from a former “Six Feet Under” writer who is currently a consulting producer on “Grey’s Anatomy” and it’s about … uhm … well, here’s the quote from Variety’s write-up: “… [it] revolves around a cable access psychologist who is forced to take a job as a mobile notary.” Sounds awesome — the life of a notary is fascinating. Meanwhile, Fox one-upped ABC — instead of giving J.J. a pilot order, the network has given him a series commitment. Abrams and some regular collaborators of his put together a sci-fi script for a show called “Fringe,” and Fox apparently fell in love with it. Plans are already underway to start filming the two-hour pilot, which has a budget on the order of $10 million. The show apparently focuses on a young, female FBI agent who teams up with a scientist and his son to investigate unexplained phenomena. A show on Fox about a brainy science type teaming up with a Fed to look into unexplained shit? … That’ll never work.
In more exciting news, Comedy Central has picked up a show I mentioned a while back, Lewis Black’s “The Root of All Evil.” This is the show where Black basically puts pop culture items on trial (e.g., Michael Vick vs. Michael Richards) by moderating debates held between a rotating group of comedians. This is the kind of show that’s right in Black’s wheelhouse and as long as the comedians are good (i.e., “No fucking Colin Quinn”), this could be quite the entertaining little show.
But the most interesting story of the week is that a former “short-lived show” may have found second-life. Back in the late ’90s, ABC aired a show called “Cupid,” which was created by Rob Thomas, who of course went on to create our beloved “Veronica Mars.” Well, it seems that Thomas, who currently has a production deal with ABC, was trying to come up with a sorta-like-“Cupid” show, and the network said, “Well, why not just make it again?” The original show starred Jeremy Piven as an alleged god of love who claimed to be stuck on earth, powerless, until he could get 100 new couples together. From what I remember of it, it was a cute little show. Not much is known about the new pilot, aside from the fact that setting will move from Chicago to Los Angeles (well, and that it’s probably a safe bet that Piven won’t be starring). Anyway, I’ve obviously got much love for Thomas, and the idea of him taking a second stab at one of his own shows is surely interesting, so I’ll be quite curious to see what comes of this. And as Dustin pointed out when I told him this story, maybe this means that 10 years from now some network will let him take a second stab at “Veronica.”
Speaking of second-stabs, on the other side of the pond, ITV is looking to team up with our own AMC to resuscitate the floundering remake of the 1960s series “The Prisoner,” a show about a guy who was taken to a what-the-hell-is-going-on village after retiring as a secret agent. Agent Six was originally played, wonderfully, by Patrick McGoohan, and the exciting thing about this new remake, should it take flight, is that the role will be taken over by Christopher Eccleston. The premise of the original show was quite entertaining, and Eccleston would be a pleasure to watch in the role — although, ITV has said this is going to be a “radical re-invention,” so who knows what, exactly, to expect. But I love the original and this one of those rare times when I’d actually be excited about a remake, as I think there’s definitely a lot of room to play. And while we’re waiting to see what comes of this, you could do a lot worse with your time than going to rent the original show’s DVDs.
Quickly, a congrats to “Gossip Girl,” the first new show to be given a full season order. I gave up on the show about 10 minutes into the second episode, and it hasn’t been getting great ratings. But we’re talking about the CW, so they’ll take whatever ratings they can get. Meanwhile, still no word on the first official dead show of the fall season, although it’s likely to be “Nashville” (Fox pulled the show a while back but swears it’s going to air the rest, although this seems highly unlikely based upon its abysmal ratings).
And I’ll leave you with two things. First, the trailer for SciFi’s upcoming “Tin Man,” a re-telling of Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The miniseries premieres on December 2 (from 9-11 p.m., with two more two-hour installments airing over the next two nighs), and from this little trailer, it looks relatively pretty. And it stars Neal McDonough (!) and Zooey Deschanel (*swoon*) among others. And. Yet. It looks pretty damn atrocious, in my humble estimation (they refer to the magical land as “the oh-zee,” for Christ’s sake). But judge for yourself:
As for your second parting video? BSG! BSG! BSG! BSG!
Seth Freilich is Pajiba’s television editor. He’s still wearing his Phillies hat despite their sweep right out of the playoffs, in support of the fact that they even made the playoffs. And he would like the Rockies to go fuck themselves.
Comments
Posted by: anikitty at October 10, 2007 8:26 AM
We get it, you're not gay.