Question: I love Arrested Development, and have been a loyal fan since the start, getting all of my friends and family to watch as it struggled through two seasons. After watching the third-season premiere with my friends, we were all so pleased to know that the show is still hilarious in every way (the running gag of waiting to go camping with sleeping bag and fishing pole in hand and driving the log cabin down the highway were Arrested humor at its best), but after seeing the ratings for the premiere, which were as low as ever, what do you think is to come of this wonderful show? It baffles me that practically no one in America will watch this show, like it's some kind of plague. But I am thankful for the Arrested we have gotten, which is probably more than anyone expected. How long do you think the show has until the final "huge mistake?"
Answer: Look, it somehow made it to a third season, despite puny, cablelike numbers. For that alone, like you, I'm thrilled. Maybe this will
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Jennifer Love Hewitt's Medium clone, Ghost Whisperer, hooked a solid 11 million viewers in its debut Friday. The CBS drama ranked as the night's most-watched show. NBC, meanwhile, got a decent performance out of feel-good reality show Three Wishes, which bowed at 9 pm with 8.6 million viewers. Less impressive was the 10 pm premiere of NBC's Inconceivable: The fertility-clinic soap arrived stillborn with 6.4 million viewers.
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Question: Once again I am absolutely mystified by the results of the Emmys. Though I am a fan of Boston Legal and think James Spader and William Shatner are delightful in it, I cannot understand how the voters could choose those two over the likes of Terry O'Quinn and our beloved Kiefer Sutherland! The show didn't even run a full season! Why does the television industry refuse to give Kiefer the Emmy he is so grossly overdue? It's insulting that he would lose for the fourth year to someone so undeserving. At least if Hugh Laurie had won, it would make a little more sense. I've just got to quit watching these stupid awards or else quit expecting the results to be anything other than a farce!
Answer: It's like we're Charlie Brown and the Emmys are Lucy holding a football. We keep hoping they'll do the right thing, and splat! There we are on our back, wondering what they saw that we didn't see, and vice versa. The lead actor in a drama category was the toughest to call, and while I felt
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Question: I noticed there was a glut of supernatural shows coming this season — joining the Lost trend, I suppose. I was wondering if a show like, say, Tru Calling was coming this season, would it be more likely to stay on the air? The reason I ask is that I saw a preview for Ghost Whisperer and thought it looked like a cross between Medium and Tru Calling.
Answer: We have yet to see how many of these new fantasy/horror/sci-fi shows will survive, so there's no guarantee a show like Tru Calling would fare better or worse this year, except for the fact that the networks are more receptive to genre shows this season and may be more willing to show patience with them. (Tru, you'll recall, was infamously mistreated by Fox. No show could survive that sort of callous disregard.) As for Ghost Whisperer, it's more like a cross between Medium and Touched by an Angel. The previews look a little spooky, but the show isn't a thriller. The mysteries here are mostly emotional, even schmaltzy ...
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For both of you who skipped reading Damian J. Holbrook's deliciously snarky blow-by-blow of Sunday night's Emmycast, those wiseguys from The Sopranos, MIA this year, contracted out a hired gun named Inspector Clouseau to get the job done for HBO. Fueled by nine wins for The Life and Death of Peter Sellers — including a gold lady for star Geoffrey Rush — HBO amassed 27 Emmys overall, the same tally as the top two broadcast networks, ABC (with 16) and CBS (11), combined. Monk's Tony Shalhoub and Medium's Patricia Arquette were the night's "not so expected" wins and Felicity Huffman beat out Housewives favorites Teri Hatcher and Marcia Cross. Boston Legal's James Spader (a repeat winner) and William Shatner packed a one-two punch, and everybody showed Raymond
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