Faith + Joss Whedon + Fox = sqee!

Yowza, look at this! Joss Whedon has already gotten a seven episode commitment for a new show for Fox, that will star Eliza Dushku. I'm a bit frightened that it will suffer the same fate as Firefly, but for now, I'm going to stay optimistic. And get this - Eliza will be living in a "a futuristic dorm" with a bunch of other Jason Bourne-like secret agents who get the memories erased after assignments.

There's an interview with Whedon in the article, and he does comment that 20th Century Fox genuinely is trying to resolve the issue with the Buffy musicals so that they can restart. Ooh, apparently Joss thinks the Eliza show might even be ready as soon as spring, provided the writer's strike doesn't derail that...

Veronica Mars - what could have been

Before it got cancelled, Rob Thomas did a short pilot of what Veronica Mars could have been like in season 4 if she went to work at the FBI.

Degrees of separation from Amazing Racers

Previous to this, my closest connection to any of the Amazing Racers was two degrees via Gecko and a Christmas party. However, the universe is coming together now, since I have only one degree of separation from the racers via the tomcat who knew one of the racers via work and via cc who used to carpool with a different racer.

Mad Money

The trailer for Mad Money - Katie Holmes first movie in a long while, is up. And it kind of looks like a total train wreck. Huh.

Hulu Hands-On Review

There have been a number of reviews of Hulu.com, the new NBC/Fox TV portal. Many of the reviews have been positive, including this review. I'm definitely going to have to check it out. Apparently, they have the whole first season of Arrested Development up there, as well as Scrubs episodes.

Office convention

If you though Joss Whedon/sci fi/fantasy show fans were the only people to go nuts for a convention, you'd be wrong because it sounds like there are some obsessed Office fans out there. I love the picture of the I (pretzel) Pretzel Day shirt! And people competed in an Office Olympics competition. Awesome!

iTunes & ABC

Oh thank goodness, something intelligent on a television website. ABC has finally added iTunes links to their music guide so you don't always have to manually type it into iTunes. Too bad I haven't installed it on this computer yet and I'm reluctant to poison this machine with more software...

TV strike

Here's a more detailed article about the potential writer's strike in TV, and some of the issues at stake in the negotiations. Residuals on new media broadcasts appear to be one of the major sticking points; usually union negotiations seem to mainly play out in the media, but with an annoying lack of detail, so you can't figure out whether any side is taking too hard a stance or is asking for unreasonable things. I'm also kind of surprised that a lot of the TV writers are working around the clock trying to finish scripts. You'd think that if there was a lot of bad blood about the residuals, that they would obviously do their job in the runup to the strike, but would not necessarily work overtime.

TV Guide stuff

Here are a few links from TVguide.com:

Here's an article that says that it answers burning questions from the Damages finale. Unfortunately, I can't read it yet because I am one of those people contributing to its miserable ratings by watching it days later on my DVR. Sorry Damages! I hope you get picked up! The tomcat and cc2 have told me the finale is pretty exciting.

There is a trailer for the new season of 24 - the trailers or previews of the season always make me really excited, as well as the usual 6 or eight hour over two week 24 "event" that kicks off the beginning of the season, but my interest typically wanes as the producers struggle to find a way to keep up the adrenaline over 24 episodes...

And Dirty Sexy Money has gotten additional script orders which seems like the interim step before getting picked up so we'll see what happens. I feel like all the full season pickups are coming fast and furious and it seems really early, but it is almost sweeps so maybe this is the time most shows find out their fate. Aliens in America and Reaper have also gotten script orders.

Product placement

Here's an article about a more subtle example of product placement/advertising - Allstate Insurance got Friday Night Lights to include a storyline about safe driving for teenagers and will have an ad at the very end of the episode. But the show will not have any explict mention or background art/posters/whatever for Allstate.

And speaking of bad driving, I just heard and then saw some driver zooming away from a hit and run accident with a parked car. There is a sad Lexus out on the street. Yowza.

Battlestar

The final season of Battlestar will air in April, which is still kind of far away. Sigh. At least we have the Razor movie to tide us over. But still no word on whether the final season will all air at once or be split into two different chunks.

Google and TV

Google is getting into the TV ratings business, helping to measure how many people watch each ad. They are partnering with Nielsen, but I wonder if Nielsen should actually run away screaming...

The Amazing Race teams

Here are the teams from the latest season of the Amazing Race. Looks like a pretty eclectic group - I wonder if the Goth couple will actually manage to maintain their makeup for the entire race.

Pushing Daisies

Pushing Daisies has been picked up for a full season, so we'll be able to find out what happens to those characters! Yay! I was a bit worried since the show looked so expensive to produce, what with the props, like all the little eco cars they crashed and blew up...

Battlestar

Here's a bunch of info about the Battlestar movie, Razor. Apparently, there will be screenings at theaters in select cities. This article also has some tidbits about the plot of the movie so beware if you don't want to know!

Amazing Race comes back early

Amazing Race gets called off the bench early and will be premiering in two weeks. I am very excited - hopefully this means that CBS will continue to think it is a valuable franchise. Maybe they will greenlight another season on TAR so that we'll get another season in spring/summer!

Pacey!

Holy cow! Pacey (Joshua Jackson) is going to be on Grey's. I guess they do know who their target audience really is...

Four Britney Spears Songs for preview

People.com points us to a streaming player for the new Britney Spears album, which has a preview of four songs and Gimme More. The second song Radar is pretty darn catchy - I like it. I'm more ambivalent about Piece of Me and Break the Ice, but both are fun. Heaven is cool - I like it!

TV Ratings and more

Via Chicago Tribune's The Watcher, here is a blog that does more analysis of TV ratings data and other TV data trends.

Step Up 2 the Streets

Wow, I didn't realize Step Up was popular enough to warrant a sequel so cleverly named Step Up 2 the Streets. I think this might be all new actors, although maybe that's because I can't remember who the female lead was in that movie. Oh wait, it was that Jenna girl who was in the NSYNC videos and was linked to Justin Timberlake after he broke up with Britney. Okay, looks like the two leads are different. Anyway, I'll have to check the reviews before I decide if I'm going to add it to my Netflix queue.

Dancing With The Stars on Wii

Here's a trailer for the Dancing With The Stars Wii game (which I saw a fairly angry and derisive review ), but the trailer does have some unintentional comedy from the clips of the people playing the game. They just look darn silly.

Christopher from Gilmore Girls!

I always loved Christopher on Gilmore Girls until (spoiler) he married Lorelei and got written to be a totally petty person. Which was a total bummer. But it now appears that he's going to be on Private Practice. I'm not watching Private Practice, but this might almost motivate me.

Also, I have to comment on the fact that the CW was the first to officially cancel a show(Online Nation or something like that - I can't remember the name), and I'm kind of surprised that not many other shows have gotten the axe yet. Last fall it seemed like a number of shows got pulled after a couple episodes, but this year, only Fox's Nashville has gotten pulled (though not actually cancelled) and that show didn't seem to get much publicity.

Broadcast v. Cable

Here's a quick article about how cable show ratings compare with broadcast network show ratings. The big brouhaha this fall has been about how all the buzzed about shows were during the summer on cable and how the fall broadcast network season has been a big letdown, but despite this apparent creative letdown, far more people watch even the crappiest of the broadcast shows. The Ghost Whisperer beat out the highest rated cable premiere (The Closer) [2.4 vs. 2.2 million), and the CW's Girlfriends beats Monk.

E:60

I set a season pass for ESPN's new 60 Minutes clone E:60 because the Sports Guy (aka Bill Simmons) is a contributor on the show and I love his pop culture laced sports columns, but the show was mostly about "hard-hitting" stories, and I haven't gotten to the part with the Sports Guy. Here's a review of the show from Slate Magazine. I might give it a couple more weeks to see if the format improves or if Sports Guy gets more screen time and actually does something fun and entertaining.

Live-action Star Wars TV Series

I guess I missed this a few weeks ago/didn't care at all about this, but I suspect that the tomcat would like to know that there may be a Live-action Star Wars TV Series...

Jezebel James

There's a rumor that the reason the episode order of the Return of Jezebel James has been cut back is because Parker Posey might not be the biggest fan of the schedule for making a weekly TV show (in the middle of this Q&A, but beware spoilers for many other shows).

What's the future of iTunes?

Here's an article that examines the future of the iTunes store

Isaac Mizrahi reality show

The CW will be doing a reality show with Isaac Mizrahi about creating a fashion collection. One can only hope it will be as fun as the Signe Chanel show about creating the Chanel couture collection with all the French seamstresses who do the hand-sewing for the couture line.

Subway orientation

NYC is putting decals on the street so you know your orientation when you get out of the subway. They're just piloting this program, but I think it's pretty useful because the blocks are long so going to wrong direction can waste a lot of time, and the twistiness of the stations and stairwells can really confuse you as to what direction you're going.

Pushing Daisies stuff

I hadn't realized this, but apparently, Pushing Daisies is basically a spin-off of Dead Like Me in spirit. Brian Fuller worked on both shows and had planned to have a storyline where George (the main character on DLM) could not collect souls because she came across a person who could bring people back to life with a touch. DLM then got cancelled so he decided to make it into a separate show. I wonder if he would have pitched this if he knew that DLM was going to get a direct to DVD movie which is slated to release next spring. Also, one other tidbit from the article is that the pies on the set of Pushing Daisies are real and they get a chef in every week to make the pies. Yum!

More Starter Wife

Even though the Starter Wife summer mini-series starring Debra Messing has been renewed. I found it pretty fun and fluffy, which was good for summer (and very girlie). I'm not sure what it means when a mini-series gets renewed - will it be a real series of 13 episodes or so? Will it just be another six hours? These are questions to ponder.

Pinkberry

Pinkberry is raising cash, which hopefully means that they have some expansion plans and will move into an area close to me!

Return of Jezebel James

Amy Sherman-Palladino's latest show the Return of Jezebel James (with Parker Posey) just got cut back from 13 episodes to 7. That is never a good sign, which is too bad since I was hoping for something fun to replace the Gilmore Girls void in my life, although I guess that void has been out there for several years since the first season or two of GG were the best.

David Simon

David Simon, creator of the Wire, may do a show about New Orleans, now that he's done with the Wire. I'd definitely watch that. I'm hoping that Spike Lee will do a sequel to When the Levees Broke, since that was rumored a while back, but I'm not sure if that ever came to fruition.

Juno - Trailer

So this movie Juno stars Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, and Michael Cera (George Michael!), and the trailer actually looks kind of entertaining. I might have to see this.

No more Buffy musical screenings

I only recently heard about the prevalence of these events where a bunch of Buffy fans get together and sing along with the musical episode "Once More, With Feeling." However, apparently Fox has cracked down on these public screenings and there will be no more. It sounds kind of like the old school Rocky Horror Picture Show stuff that used to go on (and maybe still does).

AICN has the news as well as one of the sites (the only one?) that runs these things: http://uncoolkids.com/buffy/

This doesn't really come as a surprise to anyone who knows how the industry works, but this seems like a great idea that has gotten good attendance and Fox could make a decent chunk of change with very little investment by arranging these things themselves... but yeah, probably not going to happen.

sports guy hits TV

Bill Simmons aka ESPN's Sports Guy now has a TV gig as well. We'll see if his nasally voice is as distracting on TV as it is on his podcasts...

'Church of Reggie'

Fox is developing a new pilot called 'Church of Reggie' by one of the guys from Arrested Development, with involvement from Ron Howard as well. One can only hope it will be as silly and funny as Arrested Development.

And in other news, I finally persuaded totoro to watch an episode of 30 Rock, and I think he thought it was pretty good!

New Tiffany's

Tiffany's has opened what sounds like a palatial new store in the financial district of NYC. Perhaps I'll make a pilgrimage the next time I'm in NYC...

Jumper

A trailer is out for Doug Liman's new movie, Jumper.
http://www.jumperthemovie.com/

Just last night we were talking about what Rachel Bilson has been up lately, and I guess now we have some idea. This movie stars Anakin... I mean Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Diane Lane (who I didn't see in the trailer, but I probably just missed it), and of course Summer. It's a sci-fi type action/thriller focused around a guy who can teleport himself around. What a handy talent.

The trailer has a nice slow setup showcasing his talent followed by an omgactionmysterywhat?? to draw the viewer in. Sadly Rachel is not looking her best in this, but so far it seems like Anakin will not be as ehhhhh as he was in the Star Wars movies.

Doug Liman directed Swingers, Go, The Bourne Identity, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, so he is basically my hero and this movie is now on the must-see list. The action in the latter two movies is pretty well-done in my opinion, and the trailer for Jumper suggests that we'll be seeing more of that style.

Thanks to my ninja friend for being the first to pick up on this. AICN also has comments about this.

Britney Spears's Album out on Oct 30

Britney Spears's Album is going to be Oct 30 instead of mid-November. I'm still excited about this, although I am having to look away from the train wreck that is Britney's actual life.

Damages

In case you have a spare 12 hours this weekend and wished you had caught the Glenn Close series Damages from the beginning, you can watch the whole season this weekend on FX.

Deal or No Deal ---> The Office

http://www.nbc.com/Deal_or_No_Deal/video/#mea=164150

Credit to TV Squad for this link, but if you ever wanted to see some Deal or No Deal models act out a scene from The Office, here's your chance. Seriously.

The "Pam" and the "Dwight" are actually pretty good.

And the first winner of the fall season is...

Gossip Girl, which somewhat surprisingly has already gotten a full season pickup. I didn't think this would be the first one, nor did I really have high expectations for an actual full season, but now I can look forward to this guilty pleasure for the rest of the year.

TiVo in Rhapsody

TiVo will allow users to access the Rhapsody music service; I've heard some good things about the service, but haven't tried it myself. I'll probably check it out with the free 30 day trial that Tivo will offer, but I don't listen to that much music, so I'm not sure it will make sense for me. However, the article also notes that Tivo's subscriber base has dropped by 200,000 in the past year; that's not great. I obviously need to read the quarterly financial reports from Tivo so I have a better idea of their financial health and can decide if I should get the Tivo HD. Although at $300, it's a pretty good deal.

Handicapping the New Fall Series, but with data!

Analysis of fall shows in the dangerous cancellation zone after two weeks of the fall season. Bionic Woman and Private Practice had precipitous drops between the first two episodes. However, it looks like Chuck and Dirty Sexy Money are still doing okay!

How many shows will people watch?

Apparently, people who work in television believe that most people only really love and loyally watch less than 10 shows, and maybe even only 6 shows. This makes sense to me because if you don't have a DVR, you will make an appointment to sit down and watch certain shows, but it's hard to watch something every night of the week. It seems like TV networks are annoyed by DVRs, but I wonder if DVRs have actually lowered the bar for what you'll watch since you can watch it at your leisure. I certainly keep more shows around because I can, and watch them when I have a chance. Of course, since I'm not watching the commercials, the networks still have the right to be annoyed. It would be interesting to see what number of TV shows DVR-owners loyally watch - my number is certainly much higher than 10. I also wonder if the number referenced above refers to 6-10 shows at any given time, or just 6-10 shows across all shows. Meaning, most people can only track the time and day of 10 shows, and after that, they give up and don't want to deal with any more logistics.

This article also talks about the high buzz factor of many cable shows this summer and how the fall network shows have seemed to pale in comparison, and speculation on if this will really hurt the broadcast networks.

A New Ratings System Stirs Up the Fall TV Season - New York Times

NY Times has an interesting article about how DVRs are affecting TV ratings. Apparently about 20% of households now have DVRs and there are certain days that are more popular for watching on DVRs - one of which is, no surprise, Friday. Apparently CSI was watched by more people on Friday night, than watched all by one of the the actual Friday night broadcast shows (Numb3rs beat out DVR CSI). How I Met Your Mother gains 52% in ratings when DVR watching is included. And apparently, there will now be ratings for specific commercials, but that data won't be in until mid-October for the season premieres of shows.

Damages' gets a second season!

Looks like Glenn Close's show Damages has been picked up for another season! I'm excited because I found the show to be completely riveting this year. I'm not sure if the show will be able to keep it up because it has a pretty complex conspiracy theory type plot, and I'm not sure if any of this year's main storyline can really be continued into the next season... But I'm excited to find out!

Trivia

The tomcat loves going trivia with his friends, so I thought I'd post this item from the NY Times honoring a retiring bartender who ran a trivia game. The article also includes a set of trivia questions, which seem pretty challenging to me...

The laser!

Usually school sponsored ads during college football games are a bit cheesy and lame, but this ad for Stanford University is pretty silly.

Tivo season passes

Here's a list of the most popular season passes on Tivos. The futon critic also did some data analysis, giving some cool info like the shows with the biggest rises and falls in premiere week.

Britney video

Britney's new video is premiering on TRL on Monday and you can watch it on Youtube. Even totoro agrees that the song is pretty catchy - so not the total disaster that the rest of her life seems like. Apparently the song is #1 on iTunes; personally, I'm waiting until the whole album is released to buy it, and I'm hoping I can get it DRM free on Amazon's music store. Fingers crossed!

Scrubs

Via pop candy, there is a production blog for Scrubs so you can learn all about the behind the scenes while you're waiting for the premiere which will be Oct 25. The Pop Candy blogger also posted about this trailer for the new Katherine Heigl movie which is a romantic comedy about a girl who is always the bridesmaid and never the bride. The trailer looks kind of cute, but not super cute - I'll have to see how the reviews go. However, it does also have Judy Greer as the (of course) best friend/sidekick, which makes it that much more appealing.

DWTS

Julianne Hough and her Dancing with the Stars partner Helio hit the racetrack. I think Julianne is so cute!

Salty snack market share

In case you were wondering, here's some numbers on salty snack market sharesAn eater's field guide to pretzels. - By Sara Dickerman - Slate Magazine: "potato chips grab about 38 percent, and tortilla chips 26 percent, of the salty-snack market. Pretzels hover closer to 7.5 percent to 8 percent.) "

Gwyneth Paltrow on PBS

Gwyneth Paltrow will have a food show on PBS about eating foods in Spain. Will it be fun and interesting? Will it be better than Tara-dise?

Damages

I'm completely hooked on the FX show Damages starring Glenn Close, about a young lawyer working for Glenn Close who ends up over her head and with her fiance dead. The story is told mainly through flashbacks and it's riveting. Unfortunately, it's getting terrible ratings (near the end of this Q & A), but it sounds like the network knows that most people are watching this on a DVR rather than live. But I'd really like to see it get picked up for a second season, although I don't know what the storyline would be. Perhaps this is one of those shows that's better as an extended miniseries with just one story arc...

Vampire movies and Wallace and Gromit

Via Pop Candy, the teen vampire romance novel Twilight by Stephenie Meyer will be made into a movie.

Also in this post, Wallace and Gromit will have another short! Creator Nick Park has a video blog. I love the Shaun the Sheep series, and I am very excited to see more Wallace and Gromit. Hopefully Shaun can make an appearance too!

Amazon TV Sci-Fi Bundle

Amazon is selling the mother of all TV show DVD bundles in the form of the TV Sci-Fi Bundle. This thing is completely nuts, costs $899, and contains:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel
The X-Files
Firefly
Dark Angel
Roswell
The Pretender
Stargate: SG-1
Stargate: Atlantis

I've seen at least parts of every one of these shows other than the Stargate ones (and I think nyanko is quite familiar with many of these as well), but hey I guess the people who are serious collectors will see this as a way to save some money in the long run. I haven't gone through and added up the costs of the individual components of the bundle, but Amazon says that the list price is $1756.

Credit to TV Shows On DVD for this.

TV & iTunes

An article via tvtattle.com about the fact that TV networks are realizing they don't have to be held hostage by Apple and iTunes and are starting to explore things like their own online or download ventures, as well as Amazon Unbox.

Meevee

The New York Times TV Blog pointed me towards this other television site meevee. I'll be reading it for the next couple weeks to see if it makes it into my regular web surfing rotation.

Sail the high seas with John Mayer

Go on a cruise with John Mayer. Maybe he'll bring along whatever celebrity blonde he's dating at the time too. Also, he's calling it the Mayercraft Carrier. Yep.

Brandy!

Via InStyle magazine, we learn that David Duchovny likes Barry Manilow, but we also learn as an aside (which makes me like him waaaay more) that he also has the Looking Glass song Brandy, which is totally awesome! Brandy, you're a fine girl! What a good wife you would beeee!

Lost updates

In case you're really hurting for your Lost fix, it sounds like there's a new podcast...

Traveler - What would have happened? - more thoughts

So the funniest thing about this recap about what would have happened in the next two to three seasons of Traveler if it had been renewed, is that it is incredibly detailed and the plot is totally ridiculous. Sigh. It includes the girlfriend of one of the characters being pregnant, getting tortured and then miscarrying. I was kind of hoping that was a plot line that would just get picked up when a show was desperate and needed better ratings, since it just seems so cliche for women in thriller/suspense shows. Anyway, this is like a ten page summary of what would have happened - you'll need like an hour to get through it. :P

The other fun thing was seeing one of the Traveler main characters (Matthew Bomer aka Jay) on the season premiere of Chuck (he was the rogue secret agent guy).

TV Guide and video content

Apparently, TV Guide is putting together a portal site that will collect official network video content about TV shows