Jan 2008
Made-for-TV movie review: Bridal Fever (Hallmark Channel)
01/31/08 04:47 PM
By ED BARK
Somehow this movie slipped past Lifetime and also likely will evade reviews from all but a handful of male TV critics.
Or maybe just this one will be writing about it.
Hallmark Channel's Bridal Fever, premiering Saturday, Feb. 2 at 8 p.m. (central), is a coming out party for the girlyman gene. But it's also a royal flush if you play your cards right. Watch this movie with your sweetie and then cash in those brownie points. This is Valentine's Day foreplay she won't soon forget. Stick that in your promotional campaign, Hallmark.
Venerable Delta Burke, sporting a sprayed and neutered mound of immovable dark chocolate hair, stars as a bestselling romance novelist with six marriages under her belt. But Dahlia Marchand still sees herself as an expert on affairs of the heart. So she's quick to pounce when the hand-picked, unwed editor of her autobiography laments that she just can't understand men.
"I will whip your love life into shape, so help me God," Dahlia informs blonde, beautiful but genuine Gwen Green (Andrea Roth), who's relentlessly appealing.
You'll know how this ends before the first half-hour is up. But make it to Bridal Fever's halfway mark and you'll be in good shape to go the distance. This is a story with not one, but two rooting interests. Gwen of course is one of them, but so is the outwardly imperious Dahlia. Will each of them somehow find true happiness? Well, duh, yeah. The key is in caring whether they do or not. And this film unlocks both of those keys.
Roth, otherwise much harder-edged as Tommy Gavin's estranged wife on Rescue Me, flexes a million dollar smile and a figure that works very well from all angles. Burke, who came to fame in Designing Women, still has enough oomph to make Dahlia a bit more of a character than caricature.
Both women earn their happy endings. And the movie also knows how to treat its four principal men, none of whom are dolts played for easy laughs.
That said, this isn't anything more than what its makers intended. Bridal Fever has no surprises, but nonetheless is a movie that earns its keep. It's also a sound investment for big lugs with untapped feminine sides. Maybe some of you will thank me in the morning.
Grade: B
|
Hey, Jericho nuts
01/30/08 05:38 PM
Jericho's second season, even
though it's only a seven-episode "arc" for now, is
coming to CBS on Feb. 12th. Here's a link to a fun
clip of the network's 100 reasons to watch. At last
they've got some cheeky monkeys in the PR department.
Ed Bark
http://cbsmediagroupftp.com/clips06/100_Reasons_STREAM.wmv
Ed Bark
http://cbsmediagroupftp.com/clips06/100_Reasons_STREAM.wmv
New series review: Eli Stone (ABC)
01/30/08 08:59 AM
Premiering: Thursday, Jan. 31 at 9 p.m. (central) on ABC
Starring: Jonny Lee Miller, Victor Garber, Loretta Devine, Natasha Henstridge, James Saito, Matt Letsher, with guest appearances by Tom Cavanaugh, George Michael
Created and produced by: Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim
By ED BARK
Hard-core "procedural" crime series aren't ABC's style. Or as network entertainment president Stephen McPherson put it to TV critics last summer, "I don't think you're going to see a lot of dark, dark cop dramas or really serious and downtrodden material from us."
The network's new Eli Stone, premiering Thursday after the return of Lost, is largely light, light and up-trodden despite its title character's inoperable medical diagnosis. He has a small brain aneurism, as did his distant, heavy-drinking dad (a small guest shot by former Ed star Tom Cavanaugh). This causes attorney Eli (Jonny Lee Miller) to have cryptic hallucinations, with George Michael's impromptu performances of "Faith" spurring him toward a good deed in the series' opener.
This obviously is a very eventful period for guys named Eli, with the littlest Manning bro and his underdog New York Giants taking on the unbeaten New England Patriots in Sunday's Super Bowl. It's pretty easy to root for both of them, even if the American Academy of Pediatricians has urged ABC to rub out Eli Stone's first episode. That's because it raises questions about a vaccine preservative (given the fictional name of mercuritol) that is suspected of causing autism in a young boy.
Eli's recurring visions prompt him to represent the child's mother in direct opposition to his big, wealthy law firm, which is backing the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the vaccine. ABC now says it will add a disclaimer to the episode while also publicizing the autism Web site of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which sides with the pediatricians' organization.
That all sounds pretty heavy, which Eli Stone really isn't. Thursday's premiere begins in a snowy Himalayan village, where a few sight gags hit the spot before the show shifts back in time to the San Francisco law firm headed by imperious Jordan Wethersby (Victor Garber), whose beauteous daughter, Taylor (Natasha Henstridge), is engaged to Eli.
Narratively speaking, the young lawyer has been "worshipping the holy trinity of Armani, accessories and my personal favorite, ambition." But that's all going to change, thanks to of all people, George Michael.
Eli also has a saucy assistant named Patti (Loretta Devine in scenery-chewing mode) and a Chinese acupuncturist, Dr. Chen (James Saito), who fakes an Oriental accent but otherwise serves as something of a Master Po or Kan to a current-day "Grasshopper."
At its worst, Eli Stone is inspired nonsense. Or maybe many viewers will embrace it as a magical invitation to unfettered idealism, with Eli representing two illegal but otherwise noble and Americanized Hispanic immigrants in next Thursday's episode. (OK, some in Farmer's Branch won't be entranced, although the episode also has Eli throwing out the caveat that, yes, illegal immigration is still a major problem.)
Some of this is too preachy and fantastical. And why is it that Eli's hallucinations -- in the second episode it's a choir singing "Freedom" -- always make an entrance whenever he's making love? Wah-wah-wah.
You could do lots worse, though, and ABC already has with its earlier midseason replacement, Cashmere Mafia. This series has far more relatable characters and a digestible feel-good premise. If Eli Stone lasts long enough, ABC should arrange a crossover episode between its latent do-gooder and crazed Denny Crane of Boston Legal.
That's a vision in itself.
Grade: B
At a loss with Lost
01/29/08 12:06 PM
By ED BARK
The fourth season's first two episodes of Lost arrived in the mail this week. What to do? Quickly devour them with the understanding that ABC may send a hit team to this residence if a subsequent review breathes a word about just about anything.
It's probably safe to say they're in color, have spoken words and represent one-quarter of eight episodes that were completed before the writers' strike kicked in. There were supposed to be a total of 16 this season. But now there's no chance of completing that many by the presumed May cut-off date for airing new episodes.
Also, Lost will have two more 16-episode seasons -- at least that's the plan -- before calling it a wrap during the 2009-'10 TV season. That would be a grand total of 48 more new hours. And oh yeah, the fourth season launches on Thursday, Jan. 31 at 8 p.m. (central) after a one-hour appetizer called Lost: Past, Present & Future.
Otherwise TV critics are being strongly urged to "use discretion in reviewing this show by not revealing any plot details that contain 'spoilers.' We also ask that you refrain from discussing the following:
***The Oceanic Six
***Any details about (can't say who's can't say what), or that he even has a (can't say what).
***Naomi
***Who goes with Locke and who goes with Jack.
***Any details about the four strangers/freighter people's back stories/flashbacks."
OK then, my work is pretty much done here. Except to say that Lost is as perplexing as ever, perhaps even more so. And that despite its often maddeningly slow pace, overwrought music and big jumble of characters, it also remains oddly captivating and compelling -- to this viewer at least.
Have a good day.
Class act: Sunday's star-studded Screen Actors Guild Awards show how it could/should be done
01/28/08 09:59 AM
By ED BARK
Blessed with a free non-picketing pass from the striking Writers Guild of America, the in-solidary Screen Actors Guild put on a glitzy, star-drenched show Sunday night without making an undue spectacle of itself.
Many of the acceptance speeches were memorable, and most of the winners were hard to dispute during a two-hour, four minute ceremony shown live on both TNT and TBS cable. Here's one big disagreement, though. SAG awarded its best male actor in a movie or miniseries statue to Kevin Kline, who didn't show up and wasn't that big a part of HBO's not-so-great As You Like It. Rebuked were terrific performances by nominees John Turturro in ESPN's The Bronx Is Burning and Michael Keaton in TNT's The Company. That's a travesty.
Deservedly honored in full, however, was HBO's The Sopranos, which had its much-debated series finale last June. James Gandolfini and Edie Falco both copped acting awards and the series won for best ensemble.
"We worked real hard on this show, and what a helluva way to go (out)," said Tony Sirico (Paulie Walnuts) amid a throng of fellow cast members.
Absent production numbers and other filler, the SAG awards kept it simple without "playing off" any of the acceptance speeches. It's also a great idea to begin the show with a few self-deprecating testimonials from attendees, each ending with, "And I'm an actor."
"I used to walk down runways in my underpants," said Rebecca Romijn, now co-starring in ABC's Ugly Betty.
Doug Savant (ABC's Desperate Housewives) recalled being a "prolonged pain in my parents' ass." Jane Krakowski of NBC's 30 Rock ended with, "I'm Johnny Depp, and I'm an actor."
The word "actress," apparently considered demeaning, is never uttered during the SAG awards. Instead of a "Best Actress" category, it's "Best Female Actor," which Tina Fey won for her lead role in 30 Rock.
Fey likened herself to "being the hat rack for Fred Astaire," referring to her many scenes with scene-stealing Alec Baldwin, who later won but wasn't there. NBC's The Office then bested 30 Rock for the best ensemble award.
The SAG show, which never sagged, also was graced by a career achievement award for Charles Durning, who has survived both Hollywood and World War II's D-Day.
Denis Leary (Durning has a recurring role as his dad on FX's Rescue Me) and Burt Reynolds (they co-starred in both Evening Shade and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) extolled Durning before he slowly made his way to the stage. It all merited the night's biggest ovation from an audience that included paparazzi prey Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Mickey Rooney, 87, also went to the podium, as a presenter. And Ruby Dee, 83, won a best supporting actor award for American Gangster. Both were enthusiastically applauded as long distance runners in a town without much pity. Rooney ably joked that acting isn't work. But at his age, opening an envelope is.
Another stalwart, Julie Christie, was honored for Away From Her. And Daniel Day-Lewis, a winner for There Will Be Blood, gave the night's most memorable and gracious speech in dedicating his award to the late Heath Ledger.
The big-screen ensemble award, presented by Tom Cruise, went to No Country For Old Men, with a frisky Josh Brolin speaking for the cast.
Making "risky" films is energizing, he said. "The studio system is backfiring awfully, and it's fun for us actors."
The film's writers and directors, Ethan and Joel Cohen, are "freaky" guys, Brolin said. "And we did a freaky little movie, whether you liked the ending or not."
That turned out to be the end of the show as well. And it all went very, very well.
***Alas, SAG couldn't control a pair of very abrupt commercial breaks, at least on the TNT telecast. This sometimes happens when local ads are timed to air at regularly scheduled intervals regardless of whether a program is in progress or not. One of the breaks came just as Christie was starting her acceptance speech. But on TBS, her remarks aired in full.
SAG also couldn't monitor the red carpet arrival appetizers on E! and the TV Guide Channel. And the comportment of TV Guide's Lisa Rinna made one long for the comparative subtlety of Joan Rivers, who's been sacked by both networks.
Rinna, whose surgically altered mug is starting to resemble a Picasso painting, made a determined effort to spill out of a leopard print evening gown while also gushing at the mouth.
She squeaked and squealed, sucked up and flat-out sucked. Actor Casey Affleck had no idea what to make of her, dismissing Rinna's inquiries with disdain until she finally asked him what gum he was chewing. "Orbitz," he replied, sending her into another hoarse cackle.
Rinna also told Romijn, "You know what, you make me sick, you're so gorgeous."
And a perplexed looking Javier Bardem (who later won for his deeply dark performance in No Country For Old Men), scooted away after Rinna informed him, "You're so handsome. You're so stunning."
Ugh. And look out, Oscars, if the writers' strike is settled in time for a full-blown red carpet rollout.
New series review: In Treatment (HBO)
01/25/08 12:11 PM
Premiering: Monday, Jan. 28 at 8:30 p.m. (central) on HBO. Continuing on weeknights at the same hour
Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Diane Wiest, Blair Underwood, Josh Charles, Embeth Davidtz, Melissa George, Mia Wasikowska, Michelle Forbes
Produced by: Rodrigo Garcia, Hagai Levi, Stephen Levinson, Mark Wahlberg
By ED BARK
HBO may have made a major miscalculation in putting its least compelling patient first in a new five-nights-a-week psycho-drama.
Initial impressions are especially important in television, where most viewers won't come back for more if they're turned off for starters. And In Treatment's opening night head case, a self-absorbed young anesthesiologist named Laura (Melissa George), is easily the worst foot forward in a series that dramatically improves the very next night with the entrance of Blair Underwood as a combative Navy pilot.
First, a little explanation. This is uncharted territory for HBO, which plans to air 45 half-hour episodes of In Treatment in just nine weeks time. Each of its five patients -- actually, Thursdays are reserved for a fractious married couple -- will have nine sessions with psycotherapist Paul Weston (Garbriel Byrne), who himself will get treatment on Fridays. This invites viewers to skip nights whose patients try their patience. Having seen a night's worth of each, I'd personally opt for Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, even though the latter night probably would work better if you've seen all that Weston has been through.
Based on what HBO calls a "hit Israeli series," In Treatment easily could be one mammoth stage play -- or five mini-plays that nonetheless would be the length of Ben-Hur. For the most part it's two talking heads in Weston's informal office, or at Dr. Gina Toll's (Diane Wiest) place on Friday nights.
Byrne's character is largely reactive in Monday's Episode 1, with Laura mostly talking at him. But by Friday he's pro-active, baring himself to the older Gina for the first time since they parted ways 10 years ago as intern and mentor.
"Are you trying to 'shrink' me, Gina?" he asks at one point.
Weston's marriage is increasingly sexless, and his three children can be problematic. In the first five half-hours, only rebellious nine-year-old son Max is briefly glimpsed. Wife Kate (Michelle Forbes) isn't seen at all, but obviously will show up later since HBO lists her in the credits.
Weston also frets about increasingly "losing patience with my patients," which might well be many viewers' inclination toward the aforementioned Laura.
She finally gets around to telling him that he's the one for her, a simple case of "erotic transference" if you will. But Laura first retraces a night in which she walked out on her boyfriend and found herself impulsively seeking sex in a unisex bathroom stall. Alas, a man in a next door urinal began peeing loudly in a way that reminded Laura of her boyfriend.
Turned off, she then tried to turn her anonymous boy toy away. But his member remained at attention, so he demanded a "hand job." It made Laura feel dirty, but she did it.
This doesn't exactly engender empathy. Laura's a boor, frankly, and who really cares what happens to her in the next eight weeks. But then comes Alex (Underwood), whose story is instantly involving.
On a bombing mission over Iraq he hit an assigned target that turned out to be a school. Sixteen children were killed, and radical fundamentalists the world over are calling for his head on a platter.
Alex, who claims to sleep like a guiltless baby, later ran himself into a heart attack while running with a friend. He was clinically dead for 48 hours, and now plans to visit the site of the bombing with a church group. Still, he says, "I'm dying to get back into action."
Underwood plays this character brilliantly, commanding the small screen with a mixture of cocksure arrogance and a barely hinted vulnerability that obviously will come more into play in subsequent sessions.
Wednesday night's patient, a champion would-be Olympic gymnast named Sophie (Mia Wasikowska), is very nearly as interesting. Her arms are in casts after a car hit her bicycle. But did she really want this to happen? Byrne's acting is letter-perfect here. He's tender, insistent and almost in over his head with a teen who's easy to provoke, hard to decipher.
Thursday brings Jake and Amy (Josh Charles, Embeth Davidtz). She's a pregnant career woman who's considering an abortion. Her trigger-tempered husband is suspicious of her every move and really no more likeable than Laura. So skipping this night probably wouldn't hurt.
Friday episodes begin with a "Previously on . . ." coda -- or at least the first one does. Getting into Weston's head, and seeing him lose his cool, makes for an intriguing cap-off. He's always felt that Dr. Gina considers him her inferior. And one gets the feeling he's right.
In Treatment is bold, provocative and presents quite a challenge to stay with all the way through. HBO is offering a myriad of ways to watch it, including ready availability for cable subscribers who have the "On Demand" option. It clearly won't be a wild success in league with The Sopranos, or even a mild success on the order of Big Love. But there's much worth watching here, even for those who decide to pick their spots.
Grades:
Monday -- C
Tuesday -- A
Wednesday -- B-plus
Thursday -- C+
Friday -- A-minus
Fox crushes life out of competitors in runaway week
01/23/08 05:29 PM
By ED BARK
Paced by the one-two punch of American Idol and the biggest NFC championship audience in 13 years, Fox played Goliath in the latest ratings week while rival networks shot themselves in the foot with their slingshots.
Seldom is a network this dominant in a week without either the Oscars, the World Series or the Super Bowl, which Fox also has coming on Feb. 3rd.
For the week of Jan. 14-20, the once upstart network averaged 24.3 million viewers nationally in prime-time to beat the three-network totals of runnerup CBS, NBC and ABC (23.7 million combined).
Fox also averaged 12.4 million advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds for the week, nearly quadrupling the number for second-place NBC (3.4 million).
Through 17 weeks of the strike-impaired 2007-08 season, Fox is now running a close third in total viewers with an overall average of 9.7 million. Before Idol and the NFC championship kicked in, Fox had been running fourth with an average of 8.8 million viewers.
Of far more import to all four major networks, Fox has jetted from last to first among 18-to-49-year-olds. It had been averaging 4.26 million of 'em, with frontrunning ABC narrowly on top with 4.36 million. In a single week, Fox has upped that number to 4.74 million, with ABC, NBC and CBS now in a three-way tie with averages of 4.27 million apiece.
Sunday's Green Bay Packers-New York Giants Cold War drew 53.9 million viewers, the most since 1995's Dallas Cowboys-San Francisco 49ers matchup (56.8 million), according to Nielsen Media Research compilations. The 1982 Cowboys-49ers NFC championship game is still the perhaps unbeatable ratings champ, with 68.7 million viewers. Packers-Giants climbed to third on the all-time list.
Idol, although down from last January's numbers, still averaged an imposing 31.9 million viewers for last week's four hours of audition shows. The next closest non-football attraction, CBS' NCIS, drew 15.8 million viewers in that week.
CBS remains a slight favorite to retain its full-season crown in the total viewers race, with Fox continuing to close in as the season goes on. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, though, it'll be Fox in a trot. The past week made that an ironclad certainty.
Liar liar, should Fox burn in hellfire?
01/22/08 02:20 PM
By ED BARK
Here's a basic, bare bones query for Fox entertainment chairman Peter Liguori: "In your heart of hearts, are you proud to have The Moment of Truth on your network?
This is, after all, the big-money game show that deploys lie detectors in tandem with questions such as, "While at your current job, have you ever touched a female co-worker inappropriately?"
Or, "Do fat people repulse you?" (Asked by a fat person, of course.)
And for a change of pace, how about an easy one -- "Do you think you will still be married to your husband five years from now?"
Hosted by Mark L. Walberg and already lovingly slathered with "controversy" in Fox promos, Moment of Truth gets a big blastoff Wednesday, Jan. 23, at 8 p.m. (central) following an American Idol audition show. All that's available to TV critics beforehand is a 3 minute, 50 second "preview reel" in which the basics of the show and some of the questions are thrown to us wolves.
A couple of polygraph results also are revealed, but Fox asks in bold, underlined type that they not be revealed beforehand.
Fine, but I'm going to answer one of the questions myself. Namely, "Have you ever stuffed your underwear?"
Um, yes, but only with my ample manhood. It's that kind of show. And no, I conveniently don't have a lie detector readily available.
Tell "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth" during the course of 21 progressively harder questions and you can take home $500 grand. Subtract a priceless amount of dignity, though. But what the hell, happiness is answering "Yes" to this Fox-provided sample question: "As an adult, have you ever peed in a swimming pool?"
The network's incessant on-air promos gleefully raise the question of whether Moment of Truth indeed marks the "end of Western civilization."
Boy, Fox sure hopes so. Because "Boxers or briefs?" is barely a popcorn fart compared to host Walberg asking, "Do you burp/fart in public and blame it on someone else?"
It might be instructive, though, to play a presidential candidate version of Moment of Truth. First they swallow truth serum. Then it goes something like this (with all questions drawn from Fox's 100-count printed sampler):
Hillary Clinton, "Do you love your job more than sex?"
Barack Obama, "Do you think you're better than everyone else because you're hot?"
John Edwards, "Are you currently a member of the Hair Club For Men?"
John McCain, "Did you ever fake it in bed?"
Mike Huckabee, "Have you ever spied on a naked neighbor?"
Rudy Giuliani, "Do you ever feel your spouse is too controlling?"
Mitt Romney, "Did you cheat on any of your tests in school?"
Fred Thompson, "Do you really care about the starving children in Africa?"
All of these questions, of course, should be asked by Chris Matthews, who couldn't possibly tell the truth if asked in turn, "Do you ever get tired of hearing yourself talk?"
So maybe Moment of Truth does have some practical applications in the win-at-all-costs battle for the Oval Office. Who better to play this game -- and suffer the consequences -- than people who have spent much of their adult lives making things up?
Dwindling supplies of scripted series put the major broadcast networks in various states of disrepair
01/21/08 10:25 AM
By ED BARK
Negotiators for striking writers and major studios are set to meet again this week in hopes of ending a walkout that began on Nov. 5 and since has severely dented prime-time TV schedules.
Hopes are high following last week's tentative settlement between directors and studios. But even with a quick resolution, it will be at least until spring before new episodes are ready to roll on established hits such as ABC's Grey's Anatomy and CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
The New York Times has a good article and accompanying chart on what's left in the tank at the halfway point of the 2007-08 TV season. As previously noted in these spaces, Fox is by far in the best shape with American Idol, the Feb. 3rd Super Bowl, full-season supplies of its Sunday night cartoons and fewer prime-time hours to program than its rivals.
Here are thumbnail sketches of the haves and have nots in the scripted series realm:
FOX
24 is on indefinite hold, and star Kiefer Sutherland was just released from jail Monday (Jan. 21) after serving a 48-day sentence on a DWI conviction.
In its place, though, Fox has new episodes of the action hit Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It's scheduled to run on Mondays until a two-hour March 3rd season finale. Prison Break, serving as Terminator's Monday night running mate, has four new episode left.
The Simpsons, Family Guy, King of the Hill and American Dad all have enough new episode to take Fox into the May "sweeps." House has three unseen episodes remaining, including a post-Super Bowl outing on Feb. 3.
Also in the supply shed: Four new episodes of Bones and two more of the Kelsey Grammer/Patricia Heaton sitcom Back to You.
ABC
It's exhausted its supply of new episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Private Practice and Pushing Daisies. And Ugly Betty will be out of fresh shows after this Thursday's new hour.
Boston Legal still has three first-run episodes available, as does Samantha Who?. Down to two is Brothers & Sisters.
ABC's biggest remaining playing card is Lost, which will begin an eight-episode run on Jan. 31st. The network also has holdover new episodes of drama duds Big Shots, Dirty Sexy Money, Men In Trees and Cashmere Mafia.
On the comedy front, you're welcome to fresh product from According to Jim, Notes From the Underbelly, Carpoolers and Cavemen.
CBS
Two of its three CSI hits -- Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami -- are down for the count. But CSI: NY still has two new hours left.
Also out of ammunition: Without A Trace, Numb3rs, The Unit, NCIS and Ghost Whisperer. Crime-driven "procedurals" Cold Case, Criminal Minds and Shark each have one new episode left.
CBS does have a new seven-episode arc of Jericho due on Feb. 12. And on Feb. 4th, midseason returnee The New Adventures of Old Christine will be matched with the premiere of fellow sitcom Welcome to the Captain. Also, the edited broadcast premiere of sister network Showtime's Dexter is set for Feb. 17th.
Out of new laughs are Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement, How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory.
NBC
Heroes, ER and the first-year drama Life have nothing new to offer. Nor do My Name Is Earl, The Office or 30 Rock. And the network seems to have no interest in burning off any remaining new episodes of Scrubs.
The freshman comedy-drama Chuck is down to two unseen episodes, both airing this Thursday, Jan. 24. Bionic Woman and Journeyman both are out of production and presumed dead.
The Peacock has seven new episodes of Medium remaining, a quartet of first-run Friday Night Lights hours and enough yet-to-be-seen Law & Order episode to last through spring. Its running mate, Law & Order: Criminal Intent is new only if you haven't seen the episodes shown earlier this season on NBC Universal cable arm USA. Law & Order: SVU is fresh out of first-run hours.
Las Vegas will have new episodes through February. And the new drama series Lipstick Jungle is set for a Feb. 7th premiere. There's also the coming-of-age drama Quarterlife, whose Internet mini-episodes will be stitched into one-hour increments, starting on Feb. 18th.
And if you haven't yet seen USA's Monk or Psych, they're coming in March to NBC.
"Documusical" review: High School Musical: The Music In You (Disney Channel)
01/18/08 01:34 PM
By ED BARK
Originally earmarked for last fall, Disney Channel's Fort Worth-based High School Musical: The Music In You finally arrives late and comes up short.
At just a half-hour in length, it only begins to tell the story of how the Arlington Heights and Western Hills high schools collaborated on a stage production of the cable channel's signature smash hit. Tons of perfectly usable footage must have crashed to the cutting room floor in this scant "documusical" from Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, U.S.A.). It airs on Sunday, Jan. 20th at 7 p.m. (central), two years to the day of Disney's High School Musical premiere.
Most of the kids involved in the production get expelled from the final cut, which spends an undue amount of time on a would-be Troy Bolton who was dropped from the play after slacking off too much. He did find a new girlfriend among the sound crew, though. Kopple could have spared viewers some of those extracurricular details, but doesn't.
Ann Hunter and Julia Worthington, respectively the theatre arts directors at Arlington and Western Heights, are the maestros behind the joint effort. Hunter emerges as the star, with Worthington mostly depicted as her silent partner.
"You're sucking the life out of my show, 'cause you're not on it!" Hunter rails at the cast in general. But they sure do pull it all together in a hurry. Or at least that's the impression given by a film that never gets a chance to dig in and set its own stage.
It's not the kids' fault, of course. They apparently put on quite a series of shows in the end, even if we only see snippets. Perhaps this half-hour documentary will prepare them for various rejections down the road. In this case, the dream of seeing yourself on national TV is reserved for only a few. The rest are either barely glimpsed background furniture or missing all together.
Oh well, that's show biz, and maybe there'll be a greatly expanded "director's cut" available on DVD. On Disney Channel, though, brevity's the word and disappointment is the end result.
Grade: C-minus
American Idol: Back to the drawling board
01/17/08 05:49 AM
By ED BARK
American Idol gave America at large yet another Tex-book look at Dallas Wednesday night.
Which meant recurring dust-offs of longhorn cattle, cowboy hats, ranch land and "Texas-sized" hyperbole -- all introduced by the theme song from the Dallas TV series.
Cosmopolitan? Contemporary? Citified? The two-hour audition show mostly steered clear of that during its latest procession of worthy and transparently terrible contestants.
Only one of them, by the way, actually had Dallas listed as a home address. And 24-year-old Angela Reilly isn't going to Hollywood after performing "Baby Love" and then "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" in the company of her professional model husband, who hand-picked them for her.
"They say love is deaf, right?" judge Simon Cowell cracked. No, it's blind, colleague Randy Jackson told him.
A not-so-grand total of 25 identified hopefuls paraded before the judges. Nine were from out-of-state, including climactic show-stopper Renaldo Lapuz of Reno, Nev. (above), who looked like a Musketeer from Fire Island.
The Simon-adoring Lapuz, 44, is 16 years north of Idol's eligible age limit. But he was too good/bad to pass up, and his performance of the supposedly self-written "We're Brothers Forever" had Jackson and judge Paula Abdul dancing along with him while Cowell no doubt correctly predicted, "I have a horrible feeling it's going to be a hit."
Also be assured that Lapuz quickly will find his way to Jay Leno's strike-parched Tonight Show among many other venues. Few, save for the actual participants and their families/friends, will remember anything about the two-hour Dallas audition show except him.
It all began with host Ryan Seacrest wondering whether Idol's first visit to Dallas had drained the area dry by finding Burleson's Kelly Clarkson and making her the show's inaugural champ.
"But is there any more talent?" he wondered. Or is Kelly Clarkson the lone star?" Yep, that's all we got, Bubba. We done shot the wad.
Single mom Jessica Brown, 24, of Longview, got to make the first impression. The onetime meth addict supposedly was saved in part by repeated listenings to Season 4 Idol champ Carrie Underwood's hit single "Jesus, Take the Wheel."
"She got away for a while, but that's OK. God brought her back," said proud momma Cecelia Fleet before her daughter got a gold ticket to Hollywood, one of 10 bestowed on-camera. All in all, 24 are heading West from the Dallas auditions, compared to 29 from the previous night's doings in Philadelphia.
Oak Cliff's Kelton Blackshear, 17, is going to Hollywood, too, but his only exposure came on Fox4's 9 p.m. newscast via reporter Brandon Todd's "Idol Insider" segment, one of many more to come. Todd reported live from a brew house in Arlington, where a crowd had gathered to support 24-year-old Nina Shaw of Burleson, who also was featured on the national Idol telecast. She got her gold ticket despite a "very pageant-like" performance in the words of Abdul.
The Dallas auditions bracingly lacked the 'tude and bleeped profanity spewed by the city of Brotherly Love. Poor Paul Stafford, 25, of Crosby, couldn't sing a lick. But even Cowell blurted, "What a nice guy" after Stafford graciously left a judging room set up at The W Hotel a month or so after the initial Texas Stadium "cattle call," as Seacrest put it.
Viewers also witnessed the salt-of-the-earth comportment of Saltillo, Miss. farm boy Drew Poppelreiter, who said in a videotaped segment, "My family, they're a hard-workin' buncha rascals."
Poppelreiter is going to Hollywood, too, as is Valiant, OK's Kyle Ensley, 21, a bespectacled Buddy Holly lookalike who also plans to run for public office someday. Nice kid. At least it sure seemed so.
Runnerup to Reno's Renaldo in the train wreck department was sub-hapless Douglas Davidson, 27, of Austin, of whom Cowell said, "I don't want to hear any more of this stupidity."
But Davidson kept singing until two burly Idol security guys escorted him out. Judge Jackson then dubbed Dallas "a weird city."
Seacrest later set up another round of songs sung horridly after priming viewers with, "Welcome back to Texas, home of the Wild Wild West, the land of the cowboy, where men are men."
Then, of course, came a quick series of high-pitched male singers as well as a guy in a dress.
Idol also regaled viewers with a Bastrop, TX teen who's never been kissed at his father's orders and a Lucedale, Miss. weirdo who "peels" off his fingernails and saves them in a cellophane bag.
"I don't know how to react," Seacrest riffed. "Part of me is sick, part of me is scared."
It should be noted that all of this and more seemed to share almost equal time with a series of elongated commercial breaks. Stopwatch technology here at unclebarky.com central says that the breaks consumed 37 minutes, 35 seconds of Idol's two-hour block. And that's not counting several minutes of in-show teases.
In a strike-ravaged season, networks will milk a hot show for all it's worth. And sponsor demand is still sky high for Idol despite a modest downturn in ratings for Tuesday's seventh season opener.
Now it's on to auditions in San Diego after America again learned ad nauseum that "EVERYTHING'S BIGGER IN TEXAS!!!"
So until next time, yee-haw. Sigh.
Idol re-flexes, but loses some muscle tone
01/16/08 11:52 AM
By ED BARK
Fox's American Idol is still a force, although no longer a record-setter.
Tuesday night's two-hour premiere of the show's seventh season drew 33.4 million viewers nationally to rank as the season's most-watched entertainment program to date. But for the first time it failed to break its own record, set last January when the sixth season opener had 37.4 million viewers.
Idol had increased its premiere audience in each year since launching on June 11, 2002. The seventh season opener ranked just fourth on the show's all-time list, behind the aforementioned sixth edition, Season 5 (35.5 million viewers) and Season 4 (33.6 million viewers).
That's still cold comfort for rival networks, whose strike-affected fare took a serious beating from Idol. It amassed a larger audience than the combined 29.5 million viewers for competing programming on ABC, CBS, NBC and The CW.
Wednesday's second two-hour episode will originate from the Dallas auditions.
All that glitters?
01/15/08 02:42 PM
By ED BARK
The ongoing writers' strike so far has thrown two strikes at a pair of venerable awards shows. The diminished ratings are sharp body blows to their respective networks.
Sunday night's strikingly low-rent Golden Globes press conference, rightly ridiculed as the equivalent of a Soviet Union TV production by Jay Leno, drew a paltry 6 million viewers nationally. Last year's ceremony, also on NBC, had 20.4 million viewers.
CBS' annual People's Choice Awards show, hosted by Queen Latifah in an empty room, also fell to 6 million viewers. It had an audience of 11.3 million last year.
The Globes' 14.4 million viewer shortfall enabled Part 1 of CBS' Comanche Moon miniseries to ride much taller in the saddle than initially anticipated. It had 15.8 million viewers to rank among the week's top 10 programs, according to Nielsen Media Research. Tuesday's and Wednesday's Parts 2 & 3 will have to compete in part against Fox's American Idol, though. Good luck with that.
Fox also made a big showing Sunday night, with the Cowboys-Giants prime-time runover drawing 32.5 million viewers to take the top spot in the weekly Nielsens. The network's following premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles also prospered with 18.4 million viewers.
It's always interesting to note the Big Four networks' season-to-date standings in the week before American Idol begins decimating everything in its path.
Through Jan. 13th of the 2007-08 season, CBS, ABC and NBC are tied for first place among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, with Fox just one-tenth of a rating point behind. Next week Fox will be No. 1. And it won't be caught.
In total viewers, it's still CBS on top (11.6 million), followed by ABC (10.1 million), NBC (8.9 million) and Fox (8.8 million). This means that Fox will jump past NBC this week and likely also will catch ABC before the season ends. CBS might still be too far ahead, though.
ABC's future prospects will be significantly affected by its Feb. 24th telecast of the Academy Awards -- that is, if there is a telecast. A no-frills Oscars press conference might still draw in excess of 15 million viewers. But last year's full-dress ceremony had 39.9 million viewers.
Coming off a B-flat year, Simon says Idol's back in better voice
01/14/08 04:22 PM
By ED BARK
No one talks a better game -- on- or off-camera -- than American Idol's British bulldog.
So this time out, Simon Cowell is judging the last season inferior while selling Idol's imminent seventh edition as solid gold if not platinum.
"I think personally it's one of the strongest years we've had in a long, long time," Cowell says in a teleconference with TV critics. "It is younger, I think the talent is more 'current' and they're more interesting as people. So I go into this season a lot more optimistic than I went in last year. . . You get great years and you get not-so-great years."
Idol's Sanjaya-pocked sixth season eventually took a small dip in the Nielsen ratings, marking the first year-to-year shortfall in the show's groundbreaking, star-making history. But here we go again, beginning with Tuesday's two-hour re-launch from Philadelphia (7 p.m. central) and Wednesday's double-dip from the Dallas auditions.
"This is going to sound really rude. But again, it's a blur," Cowell says of the Dallas leg, which began in the sweltering August heat of Texas Stadium before Cowell and co-judges Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson listened to selected hopefuls weeks later in the cool, cool, cool of a North Texas hotel room.
He's reasonably sure, however, that impressive teen Baylie Brown of Krum, Texas did not show up in Dallas after wowing him last year at the San Antonio auditions. Cowell dubbed her "Commercial with a Capital C," but Brown faltered in Hollywood after mangling song lyrics in a group performance. Ergo, she didn't make the show's top 24.
"I thought she'd come back this year because I did actually remember her name," Cowell says. "I think she was one who did slip through the cracks and she probably should have made it. But she didn't come back this year unless she changed her name. She's young enough. She can come back again."
The first six years of Idol have yielded two legitimate superstars -- Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood -- and a host of other winners or semi-finalists with notable success stories, particularly Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson.
"We can't guarantee that we'll find a superstar," Cowell says. "We'll do our best, but we're at the mercy of who shows up at the auditions."
Cowell's trademark is the acid-tongued putdown, not the nurturing buck-up. But even he would like a do-over on occasion. Or at least that's what he's spooning during this latest go-around with reporters.
"There are certain times . . . where you're going to hate yourself for what you said at the time. For all I know, their dog had died an hour ago, and they're singing in memory of the dog. You get very bored, and therefore you will say things at times which can get a bit harsh."
But the audition shows are "the secret to our success in a lot of ways because that's the net that seems to catch everyone," Cowell says.
Spare the sharp criticisms of horrid singers and you imperil the entire enterprise. Cowell may view himself as a "little more tolerant," but hopes people "realize that I know what I'm talking about and that it's actually more cruel to lie to someone or give them false expectations rather than tell them the truth."
In a season increasingly hampered by the ongoing writers' strike, Idol may be more potent than ever against mostly repeats and hastily conceived reality concoctions. Cowell figures, however, that "super brands" such as Idol and ABC's Dancing with the Stars (he calls the last season "phenomenal" and "brilliantly produced") will get even stronger with age.
"The minute you become bored of it, or just useless people turn up, then we have a problem," Cowell says. "Where Fox has been incredibly smart on this show is that they've only shown it once a year. I think a lot of other networks would have put it on two or three times a year.
"And we would have lasted three to four years before people got sick to death of this."
Absent dinner, drinks and Hollywood swells, it's just one big golden glob
01/14/08 08:24 AM
By ED BARK
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association's 65th annual Golden Globes presentation came and went with all the flash and excitement of a colonoscopy Sunday night. And that's a charitable assessment.
Absent winners, losers, dinner, drinks, fashion statements or even a streaker, the awards were announced at an HFPA press conference televised live by E! and very oddly on NBC.
Fittingly, the first award went to Cate Blanchett as one of several Bob Dylans in I'm Not There. Which of course she wasn't. Here's who else won if you haven't already lapsed into a coma.
E! carried the half-hour presentation live from 8 to 8:30 p.m. (central), with periodic segues to studio host Ryan Seacrest. NBC padded its coverage to a full-hour, meaning that its announcement of the climactic "Best Motion Picture" award (for Atonement) came a half-hour after E! put it out there.
Peacock hosts Billy Bush and Nancy O'Dell, from Access Hollywood, anchored NBC's Golden Globes Winners Special live from a satellite studio. They of course neglected to tell viewers that in reality they were well behind the times. Better to test the "psychic ability" of guest commentator Dave Karger of Entertainment Weekly, who was asked to predict the best picture winner. He narrowed it down to a final two that included Atonement. Atta boy.
Karger probably didn't sneak any peeks at the previous E! telecast, but who really cares if he did? It's a helluva situation when the biggest star among a small handful of official press conference presenters is Mary Hart of Entertainment Tonight. She sure acted thrilled to be there, though. Ick.
New series review: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox)
01/11/08 07:41 AM
Premiering: Sunday, Jan. 13th at 7 p.m. (central) on Fox before moving to regular 8 p.m. Monday slot on Jan. 14th
Starring: Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker, Summer Glau, Richard T. Jones, Aaron Cash
Produced by: Josh Friedman, John Wirth, Mario Kassar, Andrew Vajna, Joel Michaels
By ED BARK
Ex-Terminatorites re-unite and possibly even rejoice. The perplexing "mythology" and visceral wham-bam action are back in a choice slot following Fox's coverage of Sunday's Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants playoff game.
Scheduled at 7 p.m. (central) but subject to any football runover, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles quite possibly has more action than any series pilot in TV history. It's relentless and well-staged, even if The Terminator (Aaron Cash subbing for Arnold Schwarzenegger) just can't seem to shoot straight when it comes to knocking off potential Earth-saver John Connor (Thomas Dekker).
Monday's second episode, at 8 p.m. following the return of Prison Break, is notably calmer on the carnage front. This leaves more time for head-hurting mental gymnastics. In short, what the hell has been going on in the past, present and future?
As you can readily see from the title, this new incarnation resurrects the character of Sarah Connor, who was excised from the last big-screen movie, 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. She otherwise was played by Linda Hamilton in both The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Of that at least we're certain.
Fox's Sarah (Lena Headey) and teen son John are constantly on the move. Mom's not a calming influence. "No one is ever safe," she tells the kid after a heavy-duty action sequence in the opening few minutes.
There are smidgens of levity, though. John cringes at the thought of yet another relocation, but his marching orders are unequivocal: "Half an hour. One bag, plus the guns. I'll make pancakes."
Their next stop is Red Valley, New Mexico, circa 1999. John doesn't like being in a "hick town," but is intrigued by a high school classmate named Cameron (Summer Glau). But wouldn't you know it, the latest substitute teacher turns out to be The Terminator, who unleashes a volley of automatic weapons fire in the classroom. Fox has shortened and "toned down" this scene from the original pilot, but it would have been far better to eliminate it all together. We already get it. No one is ever safe.
The Cameron character, an obvious salute to Terminator franchise creator James Cameron, turns out to be a robot sent from 2027 to protect John and also track down and thwart whoever built a Sky Net computer system that blows up the world at some point down the road.
"In the future you have many friends," Cameron tells John. She/It may in fact turn out to be the savior of the series itself. Cameron is a very intriguing and arresting character capable of knocking The Terminator out of commission (for a couple of minutes at least) and also hitting a deadpan wisecrack out of the park.
In Monday's Episode 2, Cameron finds herself crashing through the front windshield of a traumatized passing motorist during the course of another battle royal.
"Please remain calm," she says with programmed sincerity. OK then, gotta go.
Sarah Connor Chronicles is earmarked for a two-hour, March 3rd season finale. That's a relatively short shelf-life, but certainly time enough to create a tangled web of confusion as to what might happen, what has happened and what could be prevented.
The Sunday night opener is still a rouser, though, with few respites from full-blown crash-bang. Only those addicted to the most violent of video games might deem it somewhat slow-paced. The rest of us are in for a taut, rapid-fire hour of mayhem followed by Monday's comparative but still violence-prone cool-down.
Otherwise there's somethin' happenin' here. What it is ain't exactly clear. There's a man with a gun over there. Tellin' me I got to beware."
Thanks, Buffalo Springfield. You're still right on target.
Grade: B
Miniseries review: Comanche Moon (CBS)
01/10/08 01:35 PM
Premiering: Sunday, Jan. 13th at 8 p.m. (central) and continuing Tuesday and Wednesday at the same hour on CBS
Starring: Steve Zahn, Karl Urban, Rachel Griffiths, Val Kilmer, Wes Studi, Adam Beach, David Midthunder, Linda Cardellini, Elizabeth Banks, Keith Robinson, Ryan Merriman, Sal Lopez, Joseph Castanon, Josh Berry
Directed by: Simon Wincer
Produced by: Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana
By ED BARK
Topping the deservedly sainted Lonesome Dove is a Mission: Impossible, so let's not put Comanche Moon too much to that test.
All these years later -- 19 to be exact -- the six-hour CBS prequel makes the best of times in which broadcast network budgets have been gnawed to the nub while miniseries are virtually extinct. In that context, Comanche Moon musters enough lustre to easily stand out amid a strike-torn sea of junky reality series, repeats and a handful of scripted midseason series that banked episodes before production screeched to a halt.
Premiering Sunday night and continuing on Tuesday and Wednesday, Comanche Moon looks authentically grimy and feels at least a bit like an epic western. Still, Texas author Larry McMurtry's 1997 extension of his Lonesome Dove saga clearly sags in comparison as both a novel (which I recently read) and as a television "event" that's notably short on star power or truly memorable performances.
CBS' 1989 original, shown in four parts, had perhaps the most towering cast in TV history. Start with Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones in the respective roles of retired Texas Rangers Gus McRae and Woodrow Call. Add the likes of Anjelica Huston, Danny Glover, Diane Lane, Chris Cooper and Steve Buscemi. Sprinkle with Frederic Forrest, Barry Corbin, Robert Urich, Rick Schroder, Glenne Headly and D.B. Sweeney. All of whom rose to the occasion.
Comanche Moon is a comparative bare pantry. Its best-known cast members are Val Kilmer, Rachel Griffiths and Wes Studi. But the director, then and now, is Australian Simon Wincer, who knows his way around Westerns. And perhaps he was more at ease this time around, absent all those well-documented off-screen "creative differences" with the oft-unyielding Duvall.
Whatever their difficulties, Duvall emerged on-screen as one helluva Gus McRae. His successor, Steve Zahn (Happy, Texas), does a very able job of reprising Duvall's voice patterns and overall devil-may-care nature. But he looks a bit slight to be playing Gus, who in Duvall's hands rode majestically tall in the saddle, particularly when galloping away from his beloved Clara Forsythe (Huston and now Linda Cardellini).
Karl Urban (The Chronicles of Riddick) likewise channels Jones in reprising the almost otherworldly stoicism of Woodrow Call. Tapping into his deepest feelings still leaves a dry hole. His relationship with ill-fated prostitute Maggie Tilton (Elizabeth Banks), who bears him a son he refuses to acknowledge, is a case study of repressed human emotion in the face of unrequited longing. The CBS version of Comanche Moon is very faithful to the book in this respect, leaving this viewer with a strong urge to punch Call's lights out.
The basic makeups of McRae and Call come down to the former telling the latter: "I mostly think about love, and you mostly think about war."
But opposites attract, then as now. Except that both men would rather hit the dusty trail than settle for even a reasonable facsimile of stability.
The story begins in the seemingly arctic cold of 1858 Northwest Texas after a brief prequel used to at least partially justify an eventual deadly Comanche raid on Austin. A prequel to a prequel? Just asking.
A small contingent of 10 freezing Texas Rangers is led by eccentric Captain Inish Scull (Val Kilmer), who's fated to suffer mightily -- although not too graphically -- at the hands of the Mexican despot Ahumado (Sal Lopez).
Back at the Scull manse in Austin, his almost savagely promiscuous wife, Inez (Rachel Griffiths), is lately dallying with apprentice Ranger Jake Spoon (Urich and now Ryan Merriman). Griffiths is OK as an amoral tigress, but the character is more of a sketch than fully drawn.
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Bedeviling the Rangers -- and also earning their grudging admiration -- are the remaining Comanche warriors resisting the White Man's vision of a subservient future.
Chief among them is the aging Buffalo Hump (Wes Studi), whom CBS has chosen to present without his enlarged hump. His son, Blue Duck (Adam Beach), is a smoldering cutthroat who rejects the old ways while living only to thieve and kill. They don't get along very well.
All of the Comanche dialogue is subtitled, lending considerable authenticity to the miniseries' many tribal scenes. But the Rangers' fast-moving Kickapoo tracker, Famous Shoes (David Midthunder), speaks in very stilted English. Envisioning Famous Shoes while reading the book and seeing him on-screen is a powerful disconnect. Of all the Comanche Moon characters adapted for television, this is by far the biggest disappointment.
Sunday's Part 1 ends powerfully with the regrouped Comanches heading in a formidable war party toward Austin while the Rangers are still afield. It's a violent raid, but tamed by broadcast TV restraints. Similarly, Inish Scull is treated quite badly by his Mexican captors. But unlike in the book, he's at least not shorn of his eyelids by a skinner named Goyeto. This is the "Eye" network after all.
The TV adaptation expands on the book in one significant way. It continues the relationship between Gus and Clara both before and beyond her marriage to sturdy Nebraska cattleman Bob Allen (Josh Berry). The book distanced them in too big a hurry. But here you'll get more of a romance to hang your hat on.
On the other hand, the CBS version resorts to an odd and unsatisfying bit of mysticism to decide the cruel Ahumado's fate. And vivid Lonesome Dove supporting characters such as Deets (Glover/Keith Robinson) and Pea Eye Parker (Tim Scott/Troy Baker) are largely beside the point in Comanche Moon after much fuller treatments in the book.
You can expect a satisfying finishing kick on Wednesday night, though. Part 3 immediately gallops to seven years hence, with Gus rather joltingly a second-time widower, as he was in the book. Zahn's performance as Gus grows fuller and deeper here, particularly after he rides off by his lonesome in hopes of sorting out all that's befallen him.
Little Newt (Joseph Castanon) also comes into focus as a bright-eyed kid whose father, Woodrow, keeps spitting up the bit. Maggie, now a "respectable" general store worker, also comes into her own as a woman who "can't live without affection."
In the end, fans of McMurtry's most famous western characters should be able to live with Comanche Moon. It's a quality effort that means well, ends well and pretty much holds the fort. And when you're following a legend, that's saying something.
Grade: B+
The Jewish Americans: a great first impression
01/09/08 01:49 PM
By ED BARK
Ken Burns gets most of the ink and acclaim among PBS documentarians, but the David Grubin catalogue otherwise is second to none.
His six-hour The Jewish Americans, premiering on Wednesday, Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. (central), looks like another masterpiece of visual and verbal storytelling. And that's judging only from its first two hours. The remaining chapters will air on successive Wednesdays (Jan. 16 and 23), with PBS again the fortunate beneficiary.
Grubin's previous work for public television includes Napoleon, The Secret Life of the Brain, Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided and multi-part biographies of Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Harry S Truman, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt under the esteemed American Experience banner.
His productions invariably are textured quilts in an increasingly threadbare genre. Grubin doesn't get to go on and on like Burns sometimes does, and perhaps he wouldn't care to anyway. But his attention to detail is extraordinary nonetheless. You come away richer for the very human stories he tells. The Jewish Americans is another textbook example, although it certainly never seems like a textbook.
Wednesday's opener, divided into segments titled "They Came to Stay" and "A World of Their Own," charts the dawning of Jewish immigration to America in the 1700s. They mostly came to New York, eventually massing on the city's Lower East Side for a crowded, culture-rich existence that also was marked by crime, disease and unsafe, exploitive "sweat shops."
The worst factory fire in the city's history, in 1911 at the Triangle Shirtwaist company, killed 146 young Jewish workers, 123 of them women. A reporter at the scene witnessed many of them jumping to their deaths as the fire consumed the top three floors of a 10-story building.
"The thud of a speeding, living body on a stone sidewalk," the reporter wrote. "Thud, dead. Thud, dead. Thud, dead. Thud, dead. Sixty-two thud, deads."
Interviewees in Wednesday night's premiere include Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, playwright Tony Kushner, comedian Sid Caesar, producer/actor Carl Reiner and former Picket Fences co-star Fyvush Finkel, who joyously recalls the exploits of America's first Yiddish theater star, Boris Thomashefsky.
It all makes for a very rich broth, with much more to come on the next two Wednesdays.
Grade: A (for chapter one)