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They're KILLING Saturday Night Live

September 22, 2006

Apologies to the cast of “Saturday Night Live” that we just don’t care. So what that Tina Fey left and Seth Meyers is the new Weekend Update co-anchor.

What we are excited about is that The Killers will be the musical guests for the season premiere, September 30. SNL has always been its best when it matched a cool guest host with a rockin’ band. And the regular cast did what it did best: shine as supporting characters.

Which, admittedly, hasn’t been what they’ve been doing lately. The shining bits have been rather dim. Which is also why we are not very upset that the cast has been pared down to 11 members from last year’s 16.

A lot of people are out of jobs. We’ve got a bozo for president who has spent a load of money fighting useless wars. Times are tough.

Not that Bush is the reason SNL is cutting back. But … cutbacks are everywhere. Get over it. Make Do.

Let The Killers sing four songs instead of two!

Our Lady of Perpetual News Cycles

Is this cross thing ever going to end? Now NBC is pondering the symbol and its place in Madonna's concert.

In just about every country she’s visited during her "The Confessions Tour," Madonna has got-up-on-her cross and sang: “Live to Tell.” And controversy has ensued. See, people got a thing about the cross. They think it was Jesus's and Jesus's only.

England was angry; Russia went ballistic; Italy wanted her excommunicated. Even the Muslims and the Jews thought she was out of line.

And she hasn’t changed her show.

Which is why the latest news that NBC is flirting with the idea of cutting that section of her show made us all yawn. Don’t get us wrong, we’re excited and we want to see her concert on telly. This is just one of those stories that won’t go away.

Madonna has been urging people to see her show before criticizing her act. NBC plans to air a Madonna concert in November culled from various stops on her current ''Confessions'' tour. Madonna said in a statement Thursday that there had been so many ''misinterpretations'' about her act ''I wanted to explain it myself once and for all.''

''This is not a mocking of the church,'' she said. ''It is no different than a person wearing a cross or 'taking up the cross' as it says in the bible. My performance is neither anti-Christian, sacrilegious or blasphemous. Rather, it is my plea to the audience to encourage mankind to help one another and to see the world as a unified whole. I believe in my heart that if Jesus were alive today he would be doing the same thing. Please do not pass judgment without seeing my show,'' she said.

Here’s the point being made by “The Catholic League” -- Last winter, the world went nuts over some Danish cartoons that depicted the Prophet Muhammad. NBC News did not show the cartoon. So, the League is saying that showing Madonna’s “mock crucifixion” will send a message that Christianity counts less than Islam.

They claim that, by their count, 85% of the country is Christian, and go on to make the (relatively absurd) point that making Muslims seem more important than Christians is “not a decision that any responsible person or company can afford to make.''

NBC has supposedly not made a decision, but they have said: ''We viewed it and, although Madonna is known for being provocative, we didn't see it as being ultimately inappropriate.''

So far, the scene is still in.

Americans Watch A LOT of TV

Americans are watching more TV than ever before, or at least Nielsen families are.

A survey by the group findthe total average time spent watching TV per household is eight hours and 14 minutes per day. That's a three-minute increase from 2004-05. Also resetting a record was total individual time, up three minutes from the previous year to four hours and 35 minutes.

The average American watches four hours and 35 minutes of TV every day.

"These results demonstrate that television still holds its position as the most popular entertainment platform," said a Nielsen rep. "Internet television and video on personal devices, seems not to be making an impact on traditional television viewing."

Excuse us while we celebrate these numbers. See, we're part of Bravo, and that's a TV station.

Deathwatch Update: Happy Hour v. Ms. Heche

September 21, 2006

The clock is ticking. It's been, oh, about two days since the Fall 2006 television series began and still no shows have received the axe.

But we here at BBCancelled are monitoring the "DeathWatch" like granny monitors her blood pressure. So far, America, the big money is on Fox’s “Happy Hour” and the destined-for-disaster “Men in Trees” on ABC.

Let’s focus on the trees, shall we?

ABC seems to be pulling out all stops to save this debacle. Anne Heche, in particular, does not want to take the fall. Her press junket seems to be going pretty well, and she turns out to be funny and delightful.

When asked about working with her co-star, a raccoon named Elvis, she is quick to say, “Best actor I ever worked with … he doesn’t do his own stunts, though.”

And what of the shows that you think will be on for all eternity? At the bottom of “The Deathwatch” betting pool are “The Nine” on ABC and “Runaway” on The CW.

Here’s something most interesting: Before it’s premiere, “Studio 60 at the Sunset Strip” was firmly at the bottom of the pool -- voted most likely to survive. Since it’s premiere, though, it has fallen from glory by quite a spread.

Was it not as good as you hoped? Let us know, fellow Deathwatchers, by chiming in on the Boards.

SpaceBalls: The TV Show.

We read on Broadcasting and Cable’s website this morning that Mel Brooks is working on turning Spaceballs into a television show. And get this -- it’s going to be a cartoon.

This is something we can all get behind, support, maybe write a little story about (like this!). It was our favorite movie when we were 11, and the only thing besides Ghostbusters that gave us reason to appreciate Rick Moranis.
Brooks himself will be voicing some of the characters as well as co-writing the pilot with musical movie genius Thomas Meehan, who has worked on a ton of stuff with Brooks, including The Producers.
It’s not due until the summer of 2007, but if we could set our TiVo now, we would be right there.

Just Say YouTube

Remember when Nancy Reagan went on “Different Strokes” to urge Arnold to “Just Say No?” The White House has always had their bright ideas about how to effectively launch their campaign against drugs to “the kids these days.”

Their latest maneuver is to slap some PSA’s together on YouTube. The kids like the YouTube, don’t they?

But the best, most coolest news about this stupidity is that it's garnered bad reviews from just about everyone. Not even the NeoCons think this was a good idea.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy posted a dozen videos, mostly of public-service commercials on the dangers of drug use from the ''above the influence'' campaign, as seen on TV.

As of Wednesday, the ONDCP channel had received a scant 53 subscribers and a total of 14,463 views, a relatively low total.

Some of the most viewed drug-related videos on YouTube are far more persuasively anti-drug than anything produced by the government or the Ad Council. In one video, you can see a real heroin user discuss his fight with addiction.

Still, people generally don't watch YouTube hoping to change their lives. After all, one of the most watched PSAs on YouTube is a clip from the '80s about the dangers of crack cocaine. It's not watched for its message, but for its star: Pee Wee Herman.

Bless Pee Wee! Long Live Pee Wee!

South Park Grows Up. Not Really

September 20, 2006

Birthday parties for 10 year-old brats usually suck. Cake, games, crying … maybe a fight between schoolyard enemies. Not on “South Park.”
Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are releasing a “Greatest Hits” DVD in honor of their show’s birthday.

Stone and Parker hand-picked their 10 most-beloved episodes of the long-running Comedy Central show to appear on the new ''South Park the Hits: Volume 1'' DVD, in stores Oct. 3.

The new DVD also includes four bonus episodes and ''The Spirit of Christmas,'' a never-released animated short.

Among the episodes reprised on the DVD:

''Best Friends Forever,'' which Parker described as ''a final battle between heaven and hell''; ''Good Times with Weapons''; and the infamous, ''Trapped in the Closet,'' featuring a cartoon version of ''South Park'' nemesis Tom Cruise. Said Parker, ''I don't think we've ever had a single episode that has stirred up this much unwanted and wanted attention.''

''South Park,'' which first aired Aug. 13, 1997, begins its tenth season on Comedy Central on Oct. 4.

Thousands Mourn Crocodile Hunter

Maybe it’s an Australian thing, but the memorial service for Steve Irwin, “Crocodile Hunter,” is completely out of hand. Really folks. This is not Mother Theresa we’re talking about.

The ceremony was carried live on three national television networks and at least one radio station. Flags on the Sydney Harbor Bridge and throughout Irwin's home state of Queensland flew at half-staff, and giant TV screens were set up for people to watch the service.

Prime Minister John Howard was among the 5,000 people who attended the ceremony at the ''Crocoseum,'' the small stadium in Irwin's wildlife park where he regularly put on crocodile-feeding shows.

The prime minister!? Okay. First, the Thai prime minister just lost his job while speaking at the UN on official business. Shouldn’t all prime ministers take note and stay at work? Apparently not when it comes to conservative Aussie PM Howard, who said: ''Steve Irwin touched the hearts of Australians and touched the hearts of millions around the world in a very special way.”

Then, the phone thrower got into the act. In a recorded video message from New York, Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe said: ''It was way too soon for all of us. We have lost a friend, a champion.''

Irwin, 44, died Sept. 4 when a stingray’s barb pierced his chest while he filmed a TV show on the Great Barrier Reef. His family held a private funeral service for him Sept. 9 at the family-owned park, Australia Zoo.

As expected, there was one empty seat at Steve Irwin's personal stadium _ symbolically set aside for the late conservationist himself. On the stage sat Irwin's widow, Terri, and their two children, Bindi, and Bob, 2 _ all dressed in Irwin's favorite khaki. It was their first public appearance since Irwin's death.

''Please do not grieve for Steve, he's at peace now,'' Bob Irwin said. ''Grieve for the animals. They have lost the best friend they ever had, and so have I.''

At the end of the ceremony, Irwin's utility vehicle, packed with camping gear and his favorite surfboard, was driven from the stadium _ through an honor guard of Australia Zoo employees.

No they didn’t!

As part of the public memorial titled ''He Changed Our World,'' actress Cameron Diaz said in a video presentation that Irwin was incredibly popular in the United States.

''America just flipped for him,'' said Diaz. ''Every kid was in love with the idea of being him.''

Actor Kevin Costner said in the video that Irwin was ''fearless ... He let us see who he was. That is being brave in today's society.''

Separately from the service, marine explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau said that, while he mourned Irwin's death, he disagreed with the Australian's hands-on approach to nature television.

He said he respected Irwin's environmental message, but noted that Irwin would ''interfere with nature, jump on animals, grab them, hold them, and have this very, very spectacular, dramatic way of presenting things.''

''It sells, it appeals to a lot people, but I think it's very misleading,'' Cousteau said in Los Angeles. ''You don't touch nature, you just look at it.''

All right. We’re stumped. We never thought a Frenchman with the last name Cousteau would EVER become the voice of reason.

Now back to work!

Dr. Phil vs. Dr. Ablow, Part I

Can we blame Oprah for something? Just this once…

First she let the saccharine sweetness of Dr. Phil loose on daytime television. Now, in a world safe for "nice," Dr. Keith Ablow is joining the talky-helpy pack.

The author and television personality launched a syndicated show this month that will tread some of the same emotional territory of ''Dr. Phil,'' but from a different perspective.

''I would like to think that a style of communication, an empathetic style of communication that we model with the show, would become contagious with the people at home,'' Ablow said.

Ablow said he'll try, with the cameras rolling, to get at the often hidden roots of bad behavior -- the role of parents in unwittingly fueling eating disorders among their children or the way bullies project emotional violence they have suffered onto others.

Oh man. Do we need this? Do we want this?

On the Net:
''The Dr. Keith Ablow Show''

Keith Ablow: The Man.

Soaping Up With YouTube

Now there’s something Microsoft-y-er. The computer giant is launching a new online video service hoping to tap the supposedly insatiable popularity of sharing videos online.

''Soapbox on MSN Video'' will let Internet users watch and post videos, rate or comment on them and share favorites by e-mailing them or linking them to their personal Web pages or blogs.

Damn, so original it hurts.

Rob Bennett, general manager of MSN's entertainment and video services unit, acknowledged that Silicon Valley startup YouTube Inc. has an early lead, having already attracted tens of millions of users in the year and a half since it launched. Rivals Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL also have similar offerings.

Wow, so the executive admits that he’s in last place and just following a trend.

But Microsoft believes there is ''still plenty of room to innovate, and go beyond what I would say most services provide ... just sort of the basics, a very kind of primitive experience that is not that engaging,'' Bennett said. ''It's not that fun to use. It just gets the job done.''

During a preview Monday, Bennett said Soapbox videos will be displayed in slightly larger windows than those competing services offer, and users will be able to expand videos to the full screen while they are playing, rather than having to jump back to the beginning and start over.

So, size matters. Another un-original joke for an unoriginal invention.

Sigh.

Fawlty Towers Hotel Opens

September 19, 2006

The inspiration for the British television show, “Fawlty Towers” opened its doors to the public on Monday amid disparate opinions. One thing remains true: it’s the hotel where the Monty Python kids stayed in 1971 and was the inspiration for the show.

''We decided Hotel Gleneagles is always going to be famous for inspiring 'Fawlty Towers' so, rather than being embarrassed about what has happened, we have chosen to capitalize on it,'' said Brian Shone, co-owner of the hotel in Torquay, a sedate resort in the southwestern county of Devon.

''You cannot get rid of the spirit of Basil, so you have got to embrace him,'' said Shone, who said he could become a bit like the John Cleese character, Basil Fawlty, ''when provoked.''

The Gleneagles is not the building seen in the title shots of the 1970s TV series -- that's the Woodburn Grange country club near London, which burned down in 1991.

Cleese has said the series was inspired by the Monty Python troupe's stay at the Gleneagles in 1971. He described then-owner Donald Sinclair as ''the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met.''

Sinclair's widow, Beatrice, has called that completely unfair, and blamed any trouble on the Pythons. ''They didn't fit into a family hotel ... they kept annoying my husband and were quite insulting,'' she has said.

Cleese didn't attend Monday's reopening but Prunella Scales, who played Basil's wife, Sybil Fawlty, was guest of honor. Scales, who had never visited the hotel before, arrived in a replica of the bright red Austin 1100 that Basil thrashed with a tree branch in one episode of the series.

"My Dad is a Superhero"

Big year for Mariska Hargitay, star of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” First, she had a baby. Last month she won an Emmy for her work on the show—something she completely deserved; her understated performance breaks our hearts every time.

When she picked up her award, Hargitay thanked her dad, Mickey, who passed away last Thursday in Los Angeles.

Hargitay was a star in his own right, a bodybuilder and actor who was married to 1950s sex siren Jayne Mansfield. He was 80.

Yes, that Jayne Mansfield.

Born Miklos Hargitay in 1926, he emigrated from his native Hungary to the United States after World War II. He became interested in bodybuilding in the 1950s and was named Mr. Universe, Mr. America and Mr. Olympia in 1955.

''My dad's a bit of a superhero,'' Mariska Hargitay told the National Public Radio show ''Fresh Air'' last year. He parlayed his perfect physique into a performing career when Mae West tapped him to be one of the musclemen in her stage show.

It was there that Hargitay met Mansfield, whom he married in 1957. That same year, he made his big-screen debut in 'Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. He went on to star opposite his wife in three films: The Loves of Hercules, Promises! Promises! and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

The couple had three children together, including Mariska, before divorcing in 1964. Mansfield died in a car crash in 1967.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who played Hargitay in the 1982 TV movie The Jayne Mansfield Story, offered his condolences to the Hargitay family and called Mickey ''a magnificent individual.''

''Mickey was such an inspiration and always had such a positive attitude,'' Schwarzenegger said in a statement. ''He was a role model of mine for being a successful immigrant who came to this country and pursued his dreams.''

Hargitay's career continued after his divorce with appearances in a half-dozen Italian films and horror flicks. He even guest-starred in a 2003 episode of ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.''

Bodies Ashore at "CSI: Miami"

September 18, 2006

This weekend, a dead body floated up to the set for “CSI: Miami.” No really, a real live (dead) corpse.

Okay, that’s gross and unpleasant and a little sad, but there’s an even more disturbing part: the police aren’t even suspicious.

It seems the unidentified body was just one of many that are often found floating in Biscayne Bay at Bicentennial Park during this time of year.

"Unfortunately, it's not unusual during certain times of the year that people who have fallen in the bay, either homeless or people who were asleep or in some cases boaters who had a mishap, fall into the bay and turn up days later," Detective Delrish Moss, a Miami police spokesman, told the AP.

Oh. Ew, Okay. But -- it gets even weirder.

This is only one of two dead bodies this week to wash up on a CSI set. There was another one floating around the Los Angeles set, during a shoot for "CSI: New York."

This discovery, like the Miami corpse, was not considered suspicious. Uhm, we’re gonna go ahead and ask that someone consider it suspicious. Or at least, we think someone should have a talk with the CSI props department.

Firefly Marathon Today

Get the to the SciFi Channel ... Now!

Starting at 8am this morning, SciFi is running a "Firefly" marathon. The cable Net' is showing all fifteen episodes of the Brilliant But Cancelled series.

Really.

But the marathon ends soon. Well, you know if it ending in December -- that would be too soon. But it's really soon. As in 5pm tonight!

SciFi.com -- "Firefly" Marathon

“Runway” Rattles iTunes

As in Rattle-and-Hum (apologies to U2).

The show is not cancelled. And it’s not even off-the-air yet. But folks are starting to act like “Project Runway” is a Brilliant But Cancelled show.

As of Monday, September 18, 2006 … “Project Runway” is the #1 and #10 most downloaded television show on iTunes.

Last week’s “Black and White” episode is first, and the week-before’s show, “Couture du Jour” is number 10.

Yes, yes, the season is wrapping up and fans are getting excited, which should explain some of the rankings. We know who at the least the final four are—Laura, Jeffrey, Michael and Uli—and we’ll learn this Wednesday who the final three are.

But the high iTune ratings are more surprising because Bravo replays the show quite a bit helping make sure everyone can see the latest episode. So, does this mean that non-Bravo subscribers are becoming “Runway” addicts? We think so.

Maybe people are watching it on airplanes, the subway or while waiting at the dentist office. We have one BrilliantButCancelled.com staffer that just returned from vacation and watched three episodes in a row on the plane so he’d be caught up before returning to the office.