28 posts tagged “nbc”

So William Shatner appearing on The Tonight Show gets NBC upset enough to remove the clips from YouTube, but it’s OK with Heidi Klum? Does this mean that they think Canadians are more worth protecting than Germans?
   Because The Tonight Show does not air in New Zealand, this was the first interview I have seen with Conan as the host. He is very funny, and NBC has, at least on this point, made the right choice.

Show us your favourite news anchor.

Soledad O’Brien has to be one of the most generous, decent people I have met in the news business, and we share a birthday. I remember having a long conversation with her just before she gave birth to her twins and thought to myself that the intelligent, kind image she has on television is so very true to life.

   In comparison, other talking heads are, well, talking heads. They read from teleprompters and often get it wrong (in New Zealand, Simon Dallow’s ‘last bitch did’, or Carly Kirkwood’s ‘US Marine Corpse’).

I don’t think this ever aired in New Zealand, but I have heard of it. NBC spun off Columbo so that his unseen wife had her own show. But as it went on, the connection to Lt Columbo faded into the background. However, as you can see here, the dog looks like Columbo’s dog, and the Lieutenant’s Peugeot 203 is parked at home.

   I understand that Peter Falk in a later Columbo mystery made a reference to a woman masquerading as his wife, suggesting this series wasn’t canon as far as the main one was concerned.
   While a travesty for some Columbo fans, I rather like the theme.

I see how the Americans will stretch out their Life on Mars: stick in non sequitur episodes where the mystery of why Sam is in 1973 is not advanced much. While it started off well, with something looking like a UFO abduction, and with guest star Cheyenne Jackson (Xanadu on Broadway—and playing a singer, Sebastian Grace, here), it wasn’t long before it went back to the personal relationship and dramatic stuff: Sam and Maria’s affair, Annie gets told off by Gene, and a big yawnfest just like the eighth episode. This is getting dull—Gene, in a very minor role, is not enough of a cheeky cad but a father-figure, Ray was not enough of a bastard, Annie spends most of her time talking to a prisoner, Sam has made no progress figuring out why he is in 1973, and about the only guy who seemed to have any depth was Chris.
   They do find an FBI agent specializing in the paranormal, who says some UFO abductees experience a time shift, but the writers missed out a perfect opportunity for Sam to say, ‘What, the X files?’ There was very little to indicate that Sam Tyler had come from 2008. I think ABC is counting on people being absorbed by the characters, but if they do not sufficiently advance Sam’s inquiry of ‘I don’t know how or why I got here’ (as opposed to ‘Am I mad, in a coma or back in time?’) it might not be good viewing after all.
   There were good bits—when Sam is in the field searching for his UFO, David Bowie’s ‘Starman’ is played—a song that was used in the original series. For a few moments there the possibility of alien involvement looked real.

   Meanwhile, also in the US, I notice Knight Rider’s script got better this last week after the crap that came out for about 12 weeks. Sadly, the late change is not enough to save the show on NBC which was still promoted heavily (unlike Journeyman). (This illustrates that regardless of the heaviness of promotion, if it’s crap, people won’t switch on.)
   Kidult TV never goes far from the ‘a car, a stud and an old man’ formula, as I wrote before, and the new Knight Rider, originally being about ‘a car, a stud, an old man and his really hot daughter’ in the pilot had a chance. When the series started, it was about ‘a car, a stud, an old man, his really hot daughter, two Feds, and two nerds—one of whom is also hot’—and not as easy a concept to grasp. The network realized this and the show was retooled again to two male–female pairs, ridding themselves of the Feds (including Sydney Poitier, daughter of Sir Sidney Poitier) and the old man (by killing two and retiring one, with Dad-of-Fed, John Shaft, I mean Richard Roundtree, delivering the bad news). Last week they thought they may have gone too far, so Fred Williamson makes a guest appearance as the DEA director and might be the new old man.
   What we might need is Dad-of-hero, the Hoff himself, to come in—where has he been all these weeks? Write him in a story on why he has been absent, and why he needs to be absent again.

Kevin Falls, the creator of 2007’s Journeyman, gave an interview to Ain’t It Cool News about some of the secrets behind the series’ premise. The condition was that the interview would not be published until it was absolutely certain that Journeyman would not return. In August, it was published. (Kevin McKidd is now on Grey’s Anatomy; Moon Bloodgood is on the new Terminator film—why does she always get stuck with time travellers?; Gretchen Egolf I recently saw on Knight Rider.) The interview is here, and Mr Falls reveals other potential stories and the season finalé’s ideas.

Life on Mars isn’t the only show that has had a producer change and rejig Stateside. Knight Rider, shown as a telemovie earlier in 2008, has gone through many changes, though Justin Bruening and Val Kilmer remain. The rest of the telemovie, I have read, has been chucked out.

Melvin Kaminsky meets Archie Leach, as told to Johnny Carson.

I see from Deutsche Welle and al-Jazeera that Sen. Barack Obama’s overseas trip has received huge coverage, including a big interview on CBS’s Meet the Press.
   So, where were all these networks when Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman went to Iraq and Europe?
   Do most Americans even know they went?
   Some Americans talk about their big three networks plus CNN providing more favourable coverage of Democratic presidential candidates—on this alone I’m inclined to believe them.

I thought this was awesome news in that the photographer, Giuliano Bekor, shot regularly for Lucire. From the Lucire ‘Insider’ section.

Giuliano Bekor, whose credits include numerous Lucire shoots, photographed Hayden Panettiere for her 2008 Candie’s print campaign.

Hayden Panettiere will star in Candie’s back to school 2008 television, print and online advertising campaign, according to the company. Hayden, who is known as an award-winning actress, activist and star of NBC’s hit television series Heroes can now add recording artist to her résumé.
   Following last year’s marketing campaign with Grammy-award winning artist Fergie, the new fall TV commercial will be a direct lift from Panettiere’s first music video, ‘Wake Up Call’, which was styled using Candie’s apparel, footwear and accessories.
   This is Panettiere’s second season with the brand.
   To coincide with TV, a print campaign will feature Panettiere in a variety of sexy and sweet vignettes as she playfully poses with a piano, behind a beaded curtain and in a club-like setting among others. The ‘Wake Up Call’ video and the Candie’s commercial were shot in Los Angeles by famed music video director Chris Applebaum and the print campaign was shot by fashion photographer Giuliano Bekor, whose credits include Lucire, and created by the Iconix in-house marketing team.
   Fans can listen to ‘Wake Up Call’ exclusively at www.candies.com and www.kohls.com/inspire (streaming only) beginning today. The single will be available for download on iTunes beginning August 5. The single is being released by Hollywood Records.

The Independent on Sunday has a good article on American remakes of British shows, though I should add that Britain has had its share of remaking others’. Anyone remember how Married with Children (Married for Life) and Who’s the Boss? (The Upper Hand) did not translate that well in the UK?
   Ready for the American treatment are:

ABC
Life on Mars

CBS
The Eleventh Hour (prod. Jerry Bruckheimer, starring British actor Rufus Sewell)
Worst Week (based on The Worst Week of My Life)

NBC
Top Gear
Gavin and Stacey

Big screen
State of Play (to star Helen Mirren, Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck)

Also coming
The Vicar of Dibley
Footballers’ Wives

   Don’t forget the Americans are also redoing Opportunity Knocks with Ashton Kutcher, though the concept sounds a little different from the original, Kath & Kim from Australia and Good Behavior (née Outrageous Fortune) from New Zealand (already remade in the UK as Honest with Amanda Redman).
   They join The Office, which of course has been a big hit in the US and perhaps led the way with this current crop, long enough for people to have forgotten Cracker with the late Robert Pastorelli. And, of course, American Idol and America’s Got Talent are rehashes of British shows.
   Once upon a time there were many versions of Popstars, which originated in New Zealand. Pity we now license New Zealand Idol, Stars in Their Eyes and Strictly Come Dancing. At least when the Americans remake things, they generally pick better source material.