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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Question: This is more a comment than a question. I watched the webcast of your Battlestar Galactica panel at the Museum of TV & Radio. (Ain't technology grand?) It was very interesting and informative, but it was your question that had me the most interested. You asked whether the name Battlestar Galactica was a big hindrance because not since Buffy the Vampire Slayer have you as a critic had to defend your love of a show simply due to its title. Well, my comment is: Try being female and liking Battlestar. I swear many of my female friends threatened to take away my shoe-shopping privileges when I told them I watched it. It wasn't until I proved to them that, yes indeed, I could still appreciate and gush about Grey's Anatomy and Gilmore Girls that I was able to get them to watch the first season. Fortunately, the show is so good that that is all it took. However, I am very tired of having to defend my femaleness when I state that Battlestar is one of my absolutely favorite shows. Lost ...
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Question: Where do you think Everwood ranks as far as TV's greatest dramas ever? I am an older viewer and I can honestly say that it is No. 1 for me. Compared with most "great" shows, it had a relatively short run, but it never lost its magic. Every episode gave the viewers something to think about, something to cherish, a quote to remember. I can't think of any other drama that has touched me and gotten inside of my head and heart the way Everwood has these last four years.
Answer: I'm glad you feel that way, and I hope you won't take it as a sign of disrespect when I do a little reality check here. I enjoyed Everwood as much, probably more, than the next person, but it's a show limited by its genre (young-adult soap), even if Everwood often transcended that genre. Much as I loved the characters, enjoyed the writing and acting, and was satisfied by the happy ending, it's still a show that was built around the contrivances and reversals of soap opera, where even characters I liked, such
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Question: I just wanted to say that I nearly broke a rib laughing during last Sunday's Sopranos after the way Lauren Bacall got jacked, not to mention her subsequent reaction to it. Also, I guess I'm the only fan out there who isn't upset with the way the season is progressing. I know it's slow going right now, but a lot of good shows in the past have taken their time building up to a thrilling conclusion, like X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, etc.
Answer: I am loving this season beyond measure. To me, this spring there has been all the rest of TV, and then there's The Sopranos: so much richer and more real (with, I guess, the exception of this hilarious Hollywood detour) than anything else around. The episode about Vito's gay life being exposed was truly a landmark episode, illuminating this season's theme of how everyone's life and potential have been corrupted by exposure to the Sopranos (from Vito to the poor schnook who hung himself in the premiere to pathetic Artie
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Per the Hollywood Reporter, Disney Channel will debut the new CG-animated Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on May 5.... As part of a seven-figure, two-year deal with Touchstone TV, Buffy the Vampire Slayer show runner Marti Noxon has joined the ABC pilot Brothers & Sisters as an executive producer.... The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe topped the DVD sales chart for the week ending April 9, besting Brokeback Mountain by a nearly 3-to-1 margin.
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When I heard that longtime TV producer Dan Curtis died this week at 78, I kind of felt like a part of my childhood died as well. This showman no doubt was most proud of his epic World War II miniseries of the '80s, Winds of War, and its colossal 30-hour sequel, War and Remembrance. Yet I can't help but think fondly of the supernatural '60s soap opera he created (also for ABC), Dark Shadows, which introduced the world to that fang-tastically brooding vampire hero, Barnabas Collins.
Many was the afternoon I would hurry home from school (or, in the summer, the public pool) to catch the latest creepy installment of this Gothic soap. I had the books; I had the board game; I even sported plastic fangs and could produce a replica of Barnabas' gaudy ring upon demand. I w
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