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Apparently "Back To You" really is dead, because Kelsey Grammer has taken a new role on an ABC comedy pilot, "Roman's Empire." The show's about a young guy played by Nick Thune who breaks up with his girlfriend but can't get away from her crazy family. The Hollywood Reporter says Grammer will play the girl's dad, the overbearing Roman.
Fox wants you to feel their electricity. No, really. "“Broadcast television needs a jolt. We feel it’s our responsibility, as the No. 1 network for the last four seasons, to provide that electricity,” Fox Broadcasting Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori says in remarks prepared for his upfront presentation to advertisers in New York today.
The schedule announced this morning puts the most focus on dramas from J.J. Abrams ("Lost") and Joss Whedon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"). The network is not exactly reinventing the wheel, but they are putting something besides repeats on Friday night. And the bloated "American Idol" results show gets cuts back to a half hour in '09.
Fox executives on a conference call with reporters this morning admit that, like the other networks, Fox has fewer new shows due to the writers strike's disruption of the development cycle. Of course, when you're the most-watched network among total viewers as well as viewers 18-49 ...no worries mon. And they say they actually have shows in development now for all the way to the start of 2010.
Two new series debut in the fall:
"Fringe" (above), a thriller from Abrams, stars newcomer Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson and John Noble as allies thrown together to investigate weirdness emanating from a mysterious Boston plane crash. Think "Lost" meets "The X-Files." It will air behind "House" on Tuesday nights in the fall.
"Do Not Disturb" is a comedy with Jerry O'Connell as a manager at an upscale New York hotel; Jason Bateman of "Arrested Development" will direct some episodes.
The "24" prequel also airs in November, as we reported earlier this morning. One Fox exec on the call just termed it "a really cool piece of standalone business."
Coming after the first of the year - along with "24" and "American Idol" - are four more new series, including another giving-it-away reality show, called "Secret Millionaire."
The year's most anticipated drama is Whedon's "Dollhouse" (right). Eliza Dushku, who enlivened the final seasons of "Buffy," stars as one of an underground group who have their personalities "wiped" and replaced with new ones in order to better carry out their secret missions.
In the spring we'll see two comedies, the unlikely "Family Guy" spinoff "Cleveland" and the animated "Sit Down, Shut Up," from "Arrested Development" creator Mitchell Hurwitz. That's about a group of less-than-dedicated teachers, with Bateman leading the voice cast.
Tidbits from the conference call:
Someone just asked the execs how they decided whether to give "Fringe" or "Dollhouse" the fall launch. Entertainment President Kevin Reilly - I think it was him, anyway - said it was "a high-class problem to have." Whedon had seven scripts written from the get-go, but Abrams finished pilot production sooner. Whdeon welcomed the extra time, the execs said.
I'll just keep updating this item I think, because the pilot pickup news is coming fast and furious...
Dr. House will once again be insulting the deathly ill. Why do we love him so.
Booth and Brennan will be flirting inappropriately over the grotesque remains of innocent crime victims. And Peter Griffin will be back sobbing into his beer at the Drunken Clam.
Fox has announced resumed production and post-strike premiere dates for a bunch of shows. Among those that will be back on the set is "24," which will finish up production on its seventh season, even though it won't return until Jan. 2009.
"Bones" will be back with new shows April 14, while "House" follows two weeks later. The much-ballyhooed Julianna Margulies courtroom series "Canterbury's Law" finally sees the air March 10. The complete press release with all the details is after the jump.
Continue reading ""House," "Bones" And Other Fox Series Back In Business" »
Fox sends out review copies more often than the other networks typically do. Still, I was surprised when they sent a DVD with cuts of tonight's installments of "Back To You" and " 'Til Death." Even more surprised when their PR staff called and emailed to see if I was going to write about them. Under normal circumstances I probably wouldn't have; there would be something newer or more important to deal with. But with the writers strike on, and the end of original episodes looming for many series, I better take the chance while I have it, before everything on television is game shows and "Big Brother." I suspect the Fox PR push came from a similar place - trying to sear these two sitcoms into viewers' memories so they have a chance when (and if) they return after the strike.
If, as many seem to think, the strike is going to be a before-and-after moment for network TV - brought on by the Internet - then "Back To You" and " 'Til Death" are unquestionably before shows. Three-camera sitcoms in setup-punchline-kicker format with annoying laugh tracks. Even without YouTube and Tivo, they'd be old school, in a world where single-camera shows like "The Office" and "30 Rock" represent the state of the art. But for a lot of viewers, the old-school sitcom still has a lot of appeal. That's why "Two And A Half Men" comes out in the top 10 every week, pretty much.
It's harder to figure out why "Two And A Half Men" makes me laugh, while "Back To You" and especially " 'Til Death" rarely do.
"Back To You" is the more ambitious show, with big-name sitcom vets Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton as bickering Pittsburgh news anchors. The gimmick is that Grammer has just returned to the desk after 10 years in bigger markets only to learn that he is the father of single mom Heaton's 10-year-old daughter. The technical challenge here for the veteran writers and directors is to interweave the local-TV-news satire with the awwww moments as secret dad Grammer watches his little girl growing up. There's also an undercurrent that mom and dad might get together for more than a one-night-stand someday, but that's barely hinted at, something for season four or five if the show lasts that long.
Continue reading "Fox's Wednesday Night Comedies Reviewed. But Why?" »
The life of a celebrity fluctuates constantly. One minute they're on top of the world. The next minute they're overweight, dancing in front of millions of viewers while distracted by an ensuing custody battle. If you need the security and consistency of a 9-5 job, then becoming a celebrity probably isn't a good match for you. This week Video Top 5 looks at stars that have fallen (both literally and figuratively) off the map.
Jerry O'Connell has had some success over his career. However, Carpoolers is nothing short of a head-on collision with failure. Also, if you haven't checked it out already, watch as Marie Osmond faints during the judges' critique. Everyone's biggest concern was making sure the show went to commercial break.
Menudo has only been an obscure trivia answer for the last couple decades, yet apparently America wants Menudo back.
Even though Back to You is still hanging on, Kelsey Grammar will be short of a job very soon.
Back in the 90's America fell in love with the sexy, opinionated duo Salt-n-Pepa (or trio if you count DJ Spindarella). That was then, this is now.
Finally, we have one of the most outrageous moments in a Monday Night Football game and it has nothing to do with the game of football!
"GOOD LORD, cut your nails! It's like a falcon landed on my wrist!" If you hear that in Frasier Crane's voice and you laugh, then you'll like "Back To You," the new - sort of - Fox sitcom debuting tonight. This is a traditional three-camera, setup-punchline sitcom complete with obnoxious laugh track, made by skillful practitioners of the craft. It's TV comfort food. Take out the YouTube references and maybe dial back the sex jokes just a bit, and you could put this in the way-back machine and air it in 1982 or 1978 without anyone noticing a problem. Hell, Fred Willard would be wearing the same sportcoats.
Kelsey Grammer ("Frasier") stars as the perfectly named Chuck Darling, a "preening gasbag" of a local news anchor who returns to his old station in Pittsburgh after an on-air meltdown in Los Angeles that became a YouTube sensation. Patricia Heaton ("Everybody Loves Raymond") is Kelly Carr, the co-anchor he left behind, who's less than thrilled to see him back at her side. She's the one with the nails like talons, and the one who pins him with the "gasbag" tag. These are expert practitioners of two-handed insult comedy, flinging the zingers at each other with the kind of underlying spin that reveals the lingering feelings from before Chuck left for L.A. There's also the matter of a one-night stand, and a related plot twist that anyone over the age of 8 (or is it 10?) will get long before its on-air revelation.
All that said, you will laugh.
"I still vomit before every show," Willard's throwback sports anchor admits.
"Well, if it ain't broke..." Frasier, I mean Chuck, says with a thoughtful expression.
Continue reading ""Back To You" Review: Zingers From Back In The Day" »
Ask a star a leading question and you can see a whole press conference going south right before your eyes. That seemed about to happen at this summer's press tour session for "Back To You," the new Fox sitcom that debuts Wednesday night, with Kelsey Grammer of "Frasier" and Patricia Heaton of "Everybody Loves Raymond" as bickering local news anchors.
A reporter listed shows like "Seinfeld" and "Friends," where the stars had washed their hands of sitcoms afterward, then asked, "If you could explain to us why you guys seem to have a different perspective, where you say, 'Well, we're happy to come back to (sitcoms) even though we've been on these classic shows that were so successful'?"
Grammer looked down from the stage with an expression of disdain familiar to anyone who'd ever seen him as Frasier Crane. "That's what you're writing?"
"That's what I'm asking," replied the reporter. "It depends on what you say."
Continue reading ""Back To You" Brings Grammer, Heaton Back To Sitcoms" »
YIKES. More talked-about new shows hit the airwaves on Wednesdays than any other night of the week, including the new "Bionic Woman" (left).
ABC unveils its critic's pet series "Pushing Daisies" on 8 p.m. on Oct. 3, and I'm waiting to hear whether it makes a huge splash or a tiny little cult-audience plink. This is the dreamy, sweet, weird series about a guy (Lee Pace) who can revive the dead with a touch - but his second touch kills them for good. This gets a little tricky when he revives his childhood sweetheart (Anna Friel). Barry Sonnenfeld's gentle weirdness is all over this show, but I'm not sure if audiences will go for it.
Audiences will be all over "Private Practice," the "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff ABC debuts at 9 on Sept. 26. Kate Walsh's Addison moves to a new clinic where her co-workers include Tim Daly, Taye Diggs, Amy Brenneman, Paul Adelstein and Audra McDonald. The question is whether "Grey's" fans will love the new crew or find them lacking. And that will likely spell success or failure for the show with the season's best title, "Dirty Sexy Money," debuting at 10 on Sept. 26. Peter Krause of "Six Feet Under" stars as the new retainer to a powerful, rich, lunactic family headed by Donald Sutherland and Jill Clayburgh.
Wikipedia tells me that Kelsey Grammer has played Frasier Crane for 20 years, and been nominated for Emmys with the character for three different shows (including a guest spot on "Wings"). So viewers could have a hard time thinking of him as someone else in Fox's new sitcom "Back To You." But maybe not.
Grammer's new character, Chuck Darling, has borrowed a lot from Frasier, especially witty repartee and neurotic mannerisms. He's dropped most of the intellectual pretentions, but he's still a preening jerk, which makes for good combat with Patricia Heaton ("Everybody Loves Raymond") as co-anchor Kelly Carr.
The news show franchise still works, too. We've all seen videos where news anchors laugh at the wrong moment or swear when they think they're off-air, and the show gets plenty of laughs from the quick transitions between smiling faces on-camera and mean-spirited back-stabbing backstage. Along with snappy writing, the good cast and concept mean the show's got potential, but that's still no guarantee of success. There are plenty of ways they could screw it up...
