101 Posts!

This is my one hundred and first post and I choose to celebrate with these videos. Does it make sense? No. I just like baseball (and for the record am an Astro's fan, but if it came down to it, I would be a fan of ANY team that is NOT the Yankees). Yeah, I said it. What? Also for the record, I am a big Baldwin AND Krasinski fan, so everyone's a winner.

Completely Random Sidenote: Astro's were sold today to a group of business men in Houston for $680 million dollars. HOLY @$%*!

Throwback Skit on SNL this weekend

Ed Helms hosted this week on SNL (with Paul Simon as the musical guest). Instead of a digital short from the likes of the Lonely Island boys, they filmed a TV Funhouse cartoon with the 90s favorite -- the Ambiguously Gay Duo (Ace & Gary). Something I did NOT know...Colbert and Carell were the original voices in the 90s -- so they brought this beauty to life with Jon Hamm, Jimmy Fallon and Ed Helms. Amazingness.

Sneak Peeks of the New Shows:

Upfronts are this week.  Upfronts are when networks announce their new lineups to advertisers: new shows, renewed shows, etc... They have their stars come out to meet the advertisers and sell their talent to the best of their ability.  

In honor of that some of the networks have released clips of their new shows...check out NBC:


The Playboy Club on NBC:


Up All Night on NBC



Free Agents on NBC


Whitney on NBC


Grimm on NBC:


Are You There, Vodka? On NBC


Awake on NBC:


Bent on NBC:


BFF (PS is that the same dude from Happy Endings...how's that possible) on NBC:


Smash on NBC:

In TV news....

CANCELLATIONS: 
Series:
-- Brothers and Sisters

After 5 seasons...we say farewell.

-- V
-- Detroit 1-8-7
-- Mr. Sunshine
-- No Ordinary Family
-- Off the Map
-- Better with You
-- Outsourced
-- The Event
-- Lie to Me
-- Law and Order: LA


Pilots:
-- Georgetown w/ Josh Shwartz
-- Hallelujah from Marc Cherry (a friend of mine was in this one...moment of silence)
-- Poe
-- Wonder Woman (after all that HYPE!! What?!)


RENEWED:
-- Happy Endings

-- Body of Proof
-- 2 1/2 Men with the addition of Ashton Kutcher in the Charlie Sheen role
-- Harry's Law


PICKED UP:

Exit Strategy: Fox passed on the Ethan Hawke-starring action drama pilot, but the project, from 20th TV is possible for a midseason order.  Ken Olin (from Bros & Sis and Alias) has come on board to help with the retooling of the project. 

Charlie’s Angels: re-imagining of the original series starring Annie Ilonzeh (Melrose Place), Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights, Parenthood) and Rachael Taylor (Grey’s Anatomy) as Charlie’s (Robert Wagner) new Angels.

The Playboy Club: starring Eddie Cibrian, Amber Heard and Jenna Dewan: about the Bunnies and patrons of the original Playboy Club in 1960's Chicago. 

Grimm:  a show about a detective who protects humans from fairy tale creatures in some mystical place where they actually exist.

Bent:  starring Amanda Peet and Jeffrey Tambor -- from the creator of Scrubs, about a new divorcee woman who is learning to live as a single.  

Are You There, Vodka?: sitcom based on the book by Chelsea Handler, starring Laura Prepon

Last Man Standing — Tim Allen deals with a world increasingly dominated by women. Nancy Travis co-stars. Jack Burditt (30 Rock) wrote the pilot.

Pan Am — A prime-time soap about stewardesses and pilots set in the 60s. Some of the characters live double lives as spies. Christina Ricci. 

Person of Interest: JJ Abrams new series -- crime drama starring Jim Caviezel, Taraji P. Henson, and Michael Emerson.

Two Broke Girls starring Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs; created by Michael Patrick King/Whitney Cummings 

Apartment 23 – Midwestern girl (Dreama Walker, The Good Wife) moves to New York, where she finds herself living with her worst nightmare (Krysten Ritter,Breaking Bad) -- James Van Der Beek co-stars as himself

Good Christian Belles – A former high school “mean girl” (Leslie Bibb) returns home to Dallas after her marriage ends in scandal. Kristin Chenoweth and Annie Potts also star.

Revenge –The Count of Monte Cristo-inspired soap from Mike Kelley (Swingtown), centers on a woman (Emily VanCamp) who moves to the Hamptons.

Once Upon a Time – Drama set in a fantasy world were a woman (Jennifer Morrison) is drawn to a town where fairy tales could be real. Ginnifer Goodwin co-stars as Snow White.

Scandal – The drama revolves around the life and work of a professional fixer (Kerry Washington) and her staff. Also starring Tony Goldwyn. Shonda Rhimes is a producer.

The River – Thriller that follows a crew through the Amazon in search of a missing adventurer. Starring Eloise Mumford

Work It – Some say similar to Busom Buddies -- Two out-of-work car salesmen (Amaury Nolasco, Ben Koldyke) dress as women in order to get jobs as pharmaceutical reps.

Suburgatory – Jane Levy is a New Yorker who moves to a Stepford community and discovers the horrific nature of suburbs. Also starring: Alan Tudyk and Jeremy Sisto. (Very excited for this one)

Man Up — A look at what it takes to survive as a modern man, as told through the eyes of three best friends and the women in their lives. Starring Dan Fogler and Teri Polo.

Splitsville: Part 2

Since my first "Splitsville" post seems to have gotten quite a few hits...here is a follow up that I'll update throughout the week this week.

#1...the Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver.   This one surprised even me.  I guess they had stayed together for the politics of it all -- Maria is a Kennedy, she knows how its supposed to be, and now that his political career seems to be over, and he talks of returning to acting, she peaces out?   I'm assuming its her, but maybe not.  Maybe Arnold sees some opportunity he can have now that he is no longer a political figure?  Go figure.

For now that's actually the only one that is interesting -- all I can find besides these 2 are Charlie Sheen and his "Goddess,"  a Teen Mom that I refuse to acknowledge, and something about American Idol castoff, Pia Toscano. 

Two Conflicting Sides: Sorkin and MLK Jr. lend a hand

As a follow up to my Sorkin post -- one of his skills that I admired the most is his ability to argue both sides successfully.  Creating characters who whole heartedly believe in their causes and their sides, Republicans and Democrats, Conservatives and Liberals, Americans and Arabs, Blacks and Whites, Smokers and Nonsmokers, Pro Life and Pro Choice...

In my quest to watch the entire West Wing series, and strangely after the announcement of Bin Laden's death, I came across Sorkin's response to the 9/11 events.  It seems as though between Season 2's finale and Season 3's premiere...the twin towers fell.   Sorkin chose to begin Season 3 with what he called "a play"  not part of the regular timelines and storylines...it was called " Issac & Ishmael" [Backstory: we learn, is that Jews are descended from the son of Issac, and Arabs are descended from the son of Ishmael].

Leave it to Sorkin to fulfill both sides of my emotions -- the side that says "Hell ya, ding dong the wicked witch is dead."  The same side that recognizes that this is closure for so many that lost loved ones on 9/11,  and for 10 years of a war where he was the target.  The other side, is the side that finds it uncomfortable to see so many celebrating someone's death.  Dancing in the streets feels like a bizarre reaction to death.  It's the same side that thinks death is too simple for someone who did the atrocious acts like Bin Laden did.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr put it poetically as always, 

"Violence can never provide the answer. The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."



Sorkin may not be King, but he makes some good points:

"Terrorists fail 100% of the time."
-- Sam Seaborn
Like IRA (British are still here), Taliban (Christians and Muslims...and Americans still exist). While peaceful protests often succeed "Gandhi"  "Civil Rights"  "Boston Tea Party"

Student:  "Do you favor the death penalty?"
Josh Lyman: "No."
Student:  "But you think we should kill these people?"
Lyman:  "Well you don't have the same choices in a war that you do in a jury room; but I wish we didn't have to...I think death is too simple."
Student:  "What would you do instead?"
Lyman:  "I'd put them in a small cell and make them watch home movies of the birthdays, baptisms and weddings of every single person they killed over and over, every day for the rest of their lives; and they'd get punched in the mouth every night before bedtime...there'd be a long list of volunteers."

HBO GO!

I talked about this wonderful evolution from HBO (following in the footsteps of Hulu and Netflix) a few months back:  check it out here.  But now, finally, at last, months and months later...they have launched their app!  A free app for Apple and Android so that you can watch your favorite HBO shows from all your devices.

Until now, you couldn't use your iPad (even by going to the website through safari) to watch them -- you'd get some error message saying you didn't have the proper software to run the site.

I just wanted to share the news -- and even if you aren't an HBO subscriber...maybe you know a really nice person who'd let you use their log on from time to time?  Shhh...what?  I didn't say that.

Ok, Showtime...you're up!

Read more about it here:  HBO Go App Launches