Question: What in the world is happening on the set of Brothers & Sisters? It seems they can't get anything done. At least Commander in Chief got a few episodes done before all the changes. Brothers & Sisters can't even complete their own pilot. Is this show done before it even begins?
Answer: Fair question, but isn't it better for a show to retool on the front end instead of midstream? I wasn't that concerned by the early recastings, especially when one resulted in bringing Sally Field into the cast (as much as I'm a fan of Betty Buckley, who originally played the mother). Still, it is troublesome to read that former Buffy exec Marti Noxon has already left as show-runner, reportedly after clashing with the untested creator, playwright Jon Robin Baitz. There's no question the show will premiere under a cloud of turmoil and skepticism, but all that really matters is how it looks on screen. And I won't be able to comment on that until ABC actually delivers a finished episode. (Hint, hint ...
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Question: I heard that WB was going to air its entire first season before the merge with UPN. Is there any truth to this rumor? With so little on the air this summer, reruns of the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other classic WB shows would bring some much-needed humor to TV.
Answer: A slight (but significant) correction: what WB is planning to do on its last official Sunday night, Sept. 17, is rebroadcast the first episodes of such signature series as Felicity, Angel, Buffy and Dawson's Creek. (Shows continuing on at CW were not considered for this stunt, which is why 7th Heaven and Smallville aren't on the list.) Believe me, you wouldn't want to watch WB's first season on the air, which mainly consisted of one lousy sitcom after another.
Also regarding the WB/UPN-to-CW switch, Amanda asks: "What exactly will happen when WB and UPN unite? Since I already have both channels, will I have two CW channels?" Not a silly question, because this is an unprecedented situation
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Question: Regarding Blade: The Series, if Spike TV really wanted a vampire series that the fans would love, why didn't it just give us "Spike" the movie or series? No one does better justice to a black duster than James Marsters!
Answer: Surely you're not looking for an argument here. And wouldn't Spike the vamp have been a perfect poster bad boy for Spike the network? I'm just ashamed I didn't think of that when I wrote my review, in which I was more fixated on comparing how Buffy the Vampire Slayer improved from movie to TV show while Blade, to be generous, doesn't. At least not yet ...
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Question: I have a comment on a topic that I've never seen you address, and I could be the only one who feels this way. With so many new shows in the fall, it's really hard sometimes to keep them all straight, and the names of the shows often make this more difficult. They're not very distinctive! Last season, there were three sci-fi shows premiering, and they all had one-word names: Invasion, Threshold and Surface. I could never keep straight which one was on which network, and even though I had read your reviews and knew that you endorsed one especially, I could never remember which one. For this coming fall I've counted eight new series with one-word titles, and none of them are very distinguishable (Vanished, Standoff, Justice, Smith, Jericho, Shark, Traveler, Kidnapped). Just a note to the networks: If I need a visual aid to remember which shows I want to check out, I'm not likely to watch — unless they become hits and the name is repeated enough to remind me. Not a very good ...
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Normally I'm a sucker for a good bloodsucker, but I've seen paper cuts go deeper than Blade (Wednesdays at 10 pm/ET on Spike TV), the toothless new TV version of the comic-book-turned-film franchise about a hip-hop, Harley-riding, half-breed vampire who's bad news for his more evil brethren.
Where Buffy the Vampire Slayer took a mediocre film and elevated it to TV art, Blade doesn't even try to improve on the loud, flashily hollow movies. It's just more of the same martial artlessness. I kept expecting to see Batman-style OOF! BAM! graphics on screen.
"Sun's down. Time to make some friends," mutters Blade (Over There's Kirk
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