David Simon's Treme Gets April 11 Premiere Date, Trailer
Writer David Simon wants to make this clear: His new HBO drama, Treme, is not another version of The Wire. (Also, “Treme” doesn’t rhyme with “theme”—the show is named for the musically historic area of New Orleans and is pronounced “truh-MAY.”) The show is scheduled to kick off on April 11, and now has a trailer, which you can watch below. But don’t expect to learn too much about the actual plot or premise. In fact, to quote The Onion’s A.V. Club, where we came across the clip, you should “Check out the Treme trailer to learn nothing about Treme.”... read more
Austin City Limits Announces First Hip-Hop Episode, Plus Avett Brothers and More
The first all hip-hop episode of Austin City Limits will premiere on PBS this Saturday, Jan. 16. It features veteran rapper Mos Def and relative newcomer K’Naan, the latter a Somali-born Canadian renowned for his detailed rhymes. This is the first time in the show’s 35-year history that it will air an episode exclusively featuring rap artists.... read more
High Definition: Still Waiting for the Next Cosby
As I steered my family from Atlanta to Chicago to visit friends over the New Year’s holiday, I could hear the familiar voices of Dr. Huxtable, Clair, Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy coming from the DVD player. My wife had the brilliant idea of introducing our three children to The Cosby Show, and even without seeing the screen, I can tell you it’s aged just fine. As a kid, Thursdays were made better by the anticipation of great TV. But as I drove, I realized my kids having nothing like that.... read more
Gumby Creator Art Clokey: 1921-2010
The creator of everyone’s favorite and most flexible green man died on Friday in his home in California. Art Clokey was 88 years old when, according to his son, he died in his sleep. Gumby made his television debut in 1956 on The Howdy Doody Show. A year later he starred in his own stop-motion animation program, The Gumby Show, which followed the adventures of the bendy clay man and his trusty orange steed, Pokey. Clokey also created the animated TV series Davey and Goliath that ran in the 1960s and 1970s.... read more
Faux News is Good News
Over the last decade, the newspaper industry has buckled. Three of network TV’s longest-running and most trusted news anchors (Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather) have disappeared from the airwaves. And cable news has become consumed by talking heads paid to eternally bicker as if trapped in some earthbound Purgatory, a place where opinion and hearsay are subtly suggested to be fact, and where it’s policy to cut away from coverage of the day’s most important issues to follow a live car chase on the L.A. freeway.... read more
Andy Barker, P.I.: The Complete Series Review
DVD Release Date: Nov. 17 Creators: Conan O’Brien, Jonathan Groff Starring: Andy Richter, Tony Hale, Clea Lewis, Harve Presnell, Mashall Manesh Studio/Length: Shout! Factory, 132 mins. Short-lived detective spoof showed promise but never had time to develop Andy Barker, P.I. is all about what happens when you take clichéd murder-mystery investigations and make someone other than Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe the detective. The titular P.I., played to perfection by longtime Conan O’Brien sidekick Andy Richter, is fascinatingly boring—an accountant by trade, Barker is both highly unqualified and highly uninterested in solving crimes. In his heart, he’ll always prefer... read more
ABC Develops Mockumentary Cop Drama
ABC plans to put a new spin on the conventional cop drama series with 1-8-7 Detroit, an hour-long mockumentary that has a camera crew chronicling the cases of Motor City homicide detectives, according to Variety. The show will stand as ABC’s first drama pilot of the year, though it’s also expected to have its funny moments, too.... read more
Is NBC Getting Ready to Dump Jay Leno?
Update: Late Thursday evening, NBC announced it will be moving Jay Leno back to his old spot at 11:35 p.m. on weeknights. His show will now be a half hour long, pushing Conan O’Brien to 12:05 a.m. and Jimmy Fallon to 1:05 a.m. Although this plan isn’t official yet, the network is tentatively set to begin the late-night transition after the conclusion of the Winter Olympics on Feb. 28. — Update: In a statement to RadarOnline.com, the folks at NBC say they plan to stand by their man: “Jay Leno is one of the most compelling entertainers in the world... read more
ESPN and Discovery Announce 3D Television Networks
3D is swiftly moving from theaters to living rooms via a handful of networks that plan to launch 24/7 3D channels. In light of home entertainment’s fast developing technology, 3D programming could soon be a heated competition in the television world.... read more
Lil Wayne to Play Cartoon Jesus in Adult Swim's Freaknik
With Lil Wayne’s incarceration date fast approaching, the guy’s gotta be going over his mental to-do list. Release another great mixtape? Check. Use up all the drugs in Mexico? Check. Provide voiceover work for the role of Jesus Christ in T-Pain’s new Adult Swim cartoon Freaknik? You’d better believe that’s a check.... read more
Glee Season 1, Vol. 1 Review
Fox hit big on songs, bigger on duh-rama! DVD Release Date: Dec. 29 Creators: Ian Brennan, Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy Starring: Lea Michele, Dianna Agron, Chris Colfer, Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison Network: Fox I’ve never been to Lima, Ohio, which sits halfway between Toledo and Dayton, but I’ve seen it on TV. It’s where Fox’s new series, Glee—which premiered in September—is set, specifically, at the fictional William McKinley High School. Aside from one character with big-city dreams referring to it as a “cow town,” Glee doesn’t spend much time characterizing its setting, but from watching the first half of the... read more
High Definition: The Tenth Doctor Who
Blame it on Tony Soprano, but all the best TV characters these days are assholes. Or worse, really nice guys (and gals) with a horribly dark side. Dexter Morgan, the devoted husband and father with his homicidal hobby. Don Draper, everything that a woman could ask for in a husband except for all the serial womanizing. Dr. Gregory House and Nurse Jackie Peyton have relaxed the whole “do no harm” oath to more of a suggestion. And then there are my favorite neighborhood drug dealers—Weeds’ Nancy Botwin and Breaking Bad’s Walter White.... read more
High Definition: Watching Soccer From Across the Pond
I’ll be the first to recognize that I have a bit of an obsessive personality. So, since I decided this summer that I’d adopt the football club of my hosts at the Manchester International Festival, I shouldn’t be surprised by how quickly my soccer mania has developed. But what has caught me completely off-guard has been my ability to watch nearly every one of the club’s 19 matches so far this season.... read more
High Definition: AfterSCRUBS
When it came on the air back in 2001, Scrubs pulled off the seemingly impossible—it was a hospital-based show that felt completely original. With J.D.‘s absurdist fantasies, a sharp cast and a unique sense of humor, Bill Lawrence had created one of the funniest network sitcoms of the decade. As the characters developed over the course of its seven-season run on NBC from interns to full-fledged doctors, the accumulation of running gags and inside jokes flowed naturally: the unnamed Janitor’s (Neil Flynn) schemes to torture J.D. (Zach Braff), Dr. Cox’s (John C. McGinley) verbal abuse of J.D., J.D. and Turk’s... read more
James Cameron to Develop "Sci-Fi Adventure" for Fox
According to a tweet by Production Weekly, Avatar director James Cameron will have more work coming his way, this time for television. The post reads: “James Cameron is developing a Shane Salerno-scripted sci-fi action script for Fox, described as an event film set in the future.”... read more
Mike Judge's The Goode Family Moves to Comedy Central
Mike Judge The Goode Family endured a rocky first season with ABC, thanks at least in part to the show’s controversial premise, which chronicles the life of a hyper-liberal family that failed to resonate with television viewers.... read more
Dexter Showrunner Jumps Ship
After the jaw-dropping revelation in the final minutes of Dexter’s fourth season (no spoilers here), showrunner Clyde Phillips has announced that he will leave the series to spend more time with his family.... read more
High Definition: Joss Whedon's Dollhouse Finally Hits Its Stride—Just In Time For Cancellation
If Fox had canceled Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse halfway through the show’s first season, I wouldn’t have shed a tear. It looked like the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog had finally created a dud. The concept was intriguing, but the episodic adventures of a gorgeous body that could be filled with whatever personality her handlers created for her were a little silly and a lot creepy. The main Doll, Echo (Eliza Dushku), would go on engagements as a hostage negotiator, a bodyguard or, most often, a lover, and it felt a lot like... read more
Ricky Gervais Plans to Channel Rat Pack as Host of Golden Globes
Ricky Gervais was tapped in October to host the 67th Annual Golden Globes awards show—the first host the show has had since 1995. Gervais himself was a Golden Globe winner in 2004 for BBC’s The Office.... read more
Is Flight of the Conchords Finished? Yes, Affirmative.
The “fourth-most-popular folk duo in New Zealand” is hanging up its spurs at HBO. They just announced on their website that they will not be returning for a third season of their critically acclaimed, Emmy-nominated show on the cable network.... read more
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