The Prime Times: Self-Potato Edition

By on Jan 28, 2010 in In Brief |

Late-breaking news and bizarre tidbits from the TV world: In today’s biggest news, ABC has announced that this season would be Ugly Betty’s last. This is truly a loss. Ugly Betty was not only savvy and sharp, not only funny and endearing, but also insightful and surprisingly ponderous. Plus, it featured Latinos in lead roles and won both GLAAD and Peabody Awards. Luckily, the producers will have a chance to give the show closure: the current season will run for 20 episodes. So as not to be too bummed, enjoy this clip I just saw today: a woman guessing a spectacularly-wrong guess on Wheel of Fortune. Interestingly, The New York Times website ran pieces on both her and her fellow contestant. The woman is philosophical about it, and rightly so. Flubs happen to the best of us. ABC wants to keep the Lost franchise going after the landmark series bows out in May, Variety reports....

The Prime Times: Vai Com Deus Edition

By on Nov 19, 2009 in In Brief |

Here are the latest news items from the idiot-box world: Lost finally has a return date—the final season will premiere with a two-hour installment on Tuesday, February 2, at 9/8c on ABC. Chuck’s return date was also announced today. The action-comedy will return with two episodes on Sunday, January 10, and then another one the following night as it settles into its normal timeslot of Mondays at 8/7c. The show was on the brink of cancellation this past spring until fans rallied to show their support. NBC gave the show another vote of confidence a few weeks ago when it upped its order from 13 episodes to 19. ABC has released some neat-o promo images for V showing the Visitors’ motherships hovering above the world’s metropolitan centers. One is shown above, and you can view the rest at io9. Just as I was wondering where Smallville actor Sam Jones, III has been all this...

The Prime Times: Peacock Overload Edition

By on Oct 16, 2009 in In Brief |

Here’s this week’s batch of freshly-baked television news: Two big names will “sho” up on Showtime: Laura Linney will star in The C Word, a half-hour comedy series about a woman who turns her life around following a cancer diagnosis; and William H. Macy will star in Shameless, a comedic drama about a drink-swilling father of six (based on a BBC hit). In a classless move by NBC, the Glee cast is no longer invited to perform at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Jumpsuits will surely be worn at the festivities, but apparently none by Sue Sylvester. No sooner did I finish singing the praises of Kater Gordon, the Mad Men writer who went from writing assistant to Emmy winner in no time, than she was let go from the show’s writing staff. As they say in fashion… Lest you thought your eyes deceived you, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane did appear as...

The Prime Times: Lawn Mower Meets Foot Edition

By on Sep 27, 2009 in In Brief | 1 comment

I can’t even fit all the news that’s fit to print into one blog post, but here are some of this week’s most interesting tidbits: Some of the shows that premiered this week got impressive ratings. FlashForward scared up 12.41 million viewers. (I realize now that there’s no space in that title. The world’s in crisis and people are blacking out—there’s no time for spaces, folks.) Modern Family welcomed 12.74 million. And The Good Wife attracted 13.72 million watching. I didn’t preview that show, but it seems promising so long as it keeps up the scorned-political-spouse angle and doesn’t become an average law drama. Just to make the wait for Season 3 of Damages (set to start in January) that much more excruciating, Jace at Televisionary tells us that Martin Short and Lily Tomlin have joined the cast. The addition of two comedians to the cast...

The Prime Times: Big Names Edition

By on Sep 11, 2009 in In Brief |

Tonight’s top stories: As if I weren’t already excited about ABC’s new comedy Modern Family (previously previewed on this here blog), here comes the news that bona fide movie stars Elizabeth Banks and Edward Norton will guest-star in multiple episodes. Banks was on Scrubs, but Norton does television? What the what? Unfortunately, American Idol has more staying power now that Ellen DeGeneres is permanently filling the judge’s chair left vacant by Paula Abdul. But she’s one of my favorite comedians, so I won’t hold it against her too much. LeVar Burton was the subject of a recent NPR interview in which he talked about his roles on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Reading Rainbow (the latter of which came to an abrupt end two weeks ago). A lot of listeners called and emailed in to express their appreciation for Rainbow, and their words spoke volumes...