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    My Top 5 comedies of 2007


    2007 - 12.31

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    Next on my list of year-in-review posts is comedy shows. As more and more shows begin mixing comedy and drama, this becomes a harder category to handle. Is House a drama or a comedy? What about Pushing Daisies? Or Chuck? Anyone who’s used Cisco knows what I mean.

    So here they are, my Top 5 comedies of 2007, with my best guesses as to whether the shows I’m praising are comedies or not.

    5. Pushing Daisies (ABC)

    There were a lot of shows vying for the fifth spot. CBS’s The Big Bang Theory was an early favorite. So was another Monday Night on CBS show, How I Met Your Mother. I like Tina Fey’s 30 Rock even though I can’t stand Alec Baldwin. And The CW’s Reaper was, at times, hilarious. However, even though I was a late-comer to ABC’s Pushing Daisies, it immediately became a favorite for its dark theme yet wonderfully loony cast of characters. Reminds me a bit of other short-lived favorites like Fox’s Wonderfalls and Showtime’s Dead Like Me. Creator Bryan Fuller is the reason for that; he was involved in all three shows and still makes wonderful television. He has the feel of a young Glen Gordon Caron. Here’s hoping Pushing Daisies lasts longer!

    4. Extras (HBO)

    Ricky Gervais is a dark comedy genius and Extras gave me a lot of laughs this year. The series-capping Christmas special was the perfect way to fill out the characters. Here’s hoping NBC doesn’t try to snog this one into their lineup with a less-talented American cast. (Yes, The Office rebounded after a dreadful first season, but still…)

    3. Chuck (NBC)

    Sure, it’s frothy and not very deep, but it’s fun and that’s what counts. NBC’s spy comedy was a fun way to warm up for Heroes every Monday night, and fully enjoyable in its own right. With an appealing cast, Chuck looks like a keeper.

    2. Psych (USA)

    Aging well in its second season, USA’s dramady is still one of the fresher, more appealing shows on non-network television, and full of gentle laughs and good mysteries. A perfect companion to Monk.

    1. Scrubs (NBC)

    In their final season, Bill Lawrence is pulling out all the stops and it’s just too bad the series may not get the ending he envisioned thanks to the writer’s strike. The tales of JD and his many cohorts has always been a personal favorite, and this one will be missed when it disappears for good.

    My Top 3 reality shows of 2007


    2007 - 12.31

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    It’s time for some year-in-review type stuff. And while I know some of my readers are just waiting for me to go Phase I environmental all over the place, I’d rather focus on my favorite shows in different genres, thank you very much.

    3. Survivor (CBS)

    Yes, the show is getting older now, but Survivor is still great TV. With the novelty worn off, the zing now rests completely on the contestants. Getting the show out of the repetitive South Sea island locales and moved to someplace new was a smart decision to change up the look of the show. And last spring’s race-themed opening to the season turned out better than most folks expected, reinforcing the show’s theme that such things ultimately don’t matter in a game like Survivor.

    2. American Idol (FOX)

    Another old standby, I still look forward to the audition episodes and the Final Five quite a bit. Most of the episodes in the middle are “take ‘em or leave ‘em” affairs, though.

    1. Kitchen Nightmares (FOX)

    A new entry on this side of the pond, Chef Gordon Ramsey has delivered a bigger hit than his other Fox reality program, Hell’s Kitchen. Though it’s a bit of ritual, watching Ramsey turn around restaurants on the brink of closure – and serious health code violations – is surprisingly entertaining.

    Celebrity Apprentice won’t fly Air Paris


    2007 - 12.30

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    Early in the casting process, Donald Trump mentioned that his wish list for the celebrity version of his business-skills reality show, The Apprentice, would include Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Britney Spears. That’s a no, no and no for The Donald.

    While a very small handful of the celebrities who have been confirmed for the shows are recognizable, most are a rung or two below Paris, Nicole and Britney. So, for the most part, make that “E-List” celebrities, at best. None of them are of the tabloid, booze, and platform shoes set.

    Here’s the list:

    • Trace Adkins
    • Carol Alt
    • Stephen Baldwin
    • Nadia Comaneci
    • Tiffany Fallon
    • Jennie Finch
    • Nely Galan
    • Marilu Henner
    • Lennox Lewis
    • Piers Morgan
    • Omarosa
    • Tito Ortiz
    • Vincent Pastore
    • Gene Simmons

    What’s sad is that world-class athlete Nadia Comaneci is, by now, far less familiar to most viewers than former Apprentice diva Omarosa. Such is the circle of life in Hollywood.

    RIP, The 4400; Dead Zone dead


    2007 - 12.30

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    In a decision related more to ratings than the writer’s strike, USA Network has announced the cancellation of the sci-fi drama, THE 4400. A show that focuses on the idea of what might happen if all the alien abductees who’ve disappeared over the past century or so were all returned at once, many of them displaced from the times and people they once knew, slipped in the ratings last summer and was among the lowest-rated original hours of programming on USA.

    For about three seasons, THE 4400 was a part of many people’s summer viewing habits, as reliable as a bunch of plumbing fixtures; but the summer series lost steam, perhaps due to running all 13 of its episodes each season over the summer, rather than adopting the “seven in the summer, six in the winter” schedule favored by more-popular USA hits like Monk, Psych and Burn Notice.

    USA’s The Dead Zone, based on the Stephen King bestseller which chronicles the psychic adventures of Johnny Smith, a school teacher who gets into a car accident, spends a decade in a coma, and awakes with supernatural powers to foretell the future, which was at one time one of USA’s top-rated hours of original programming, was cast aside as well; the Dead Zone’s ratings were roughly the same as The 4400’s.

    Other late night talkers returning, sans writers


    2007 - 12.30

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    Hollywood writers no esta aqui!

    Even a simple sentence like that may be difficult to manage when late night hosts from Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien to Jimmy Kimmel all return to the airwaves early next year, some perhaps as soon as later this week. Unlike David Letterman and Craig Ferguson, however, they won’t be returning to the air with the benefit of writers.

    Which means Leno fans won’t really notice a difference, though fans of Kimmel and O’Brien may.

    Kimmel and O’Brien have shows that feature actual, scripted sketches; the type of humor that requires writers. Leno, even with benefit of writers, usually puts on skits that involved him standing on a street corner handing out promotional pens.

    And since Leno’s monologues all sound like unfinished Jerry Seinfeld jokes, writers probably won’t matter much on The Tonight Show one way or another.

    LENO:
    So! Did you hear about that thing at the White House today? That had to be pretty weird, huh?

    (Yes, that joke is finished now. Thanks, Jay, for all the years of those imponderable, unfinished thoughts.)

    On second thought, maybe Leno’s show never should have left the air; it clearly hasn’t been using writers during his reign.

    All I can say is, the switch to The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien can’t arrive soon enough! Hopefully he can bring Triumph with him if the show uproots him from Manhatten and plops him down in LA.

    Letterman returns with writers


    2007 - 12.30

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    Shortly after the new year begins, Late Show host David Letterman will be returning to the air … with writers and no extra luggage! Did the 2007-2008 WGA Writer’s Strike finally settle with producers?

    Not exactly. The writers did settle with the Letterman-owned production company, Worldwide Pants, which basically gave WGA most of the stuff they were asking for. As a result, both Letterman’s Late Show and Craig Ferguson’s late night talker will be back with their writing staff in tow.

    That means monologues, skits and, yes, even Top 10 lists will be part of the Letterman fare later this week when the show returns to CBS broadcast air. Some in the producers organization are grumbling about Worldwide Pants breaking ranks and settling with the writers, almost completely on their terms; it sets a precedent that could force other producers to give in to most of the demands of the WGA once they ultimately either settle individually with the union, or return to the bargaining table, a bit humbler for the experience.

    Of course, the network can’t be too pissed at Letterman; if they were, they wouldn’t let his show back on the air.

    That could be the key to a WGA victory in the labor conflict, but don’t expect a quick settlement. Some holdouts could still be freezing out the writers come summertime. In the meantime, when Letterman returns to the air, expect a lot of network sniping and strike-related humor to be the order of the day; Letterman is, of course, a WGA member himself, as well as serving as a producer for Worldwide Pants.

    I can imagine Letterman’s first joke upon his return may go something like this:

    “Thank you, ladies and gentleman. First off, let me apologize for this show’s long absence from the air. As you know, we have this strike thing going on between Hollywood writers and producers. Now, some of you may not no this, but I’m both a writer and a producer on this show, so you’d think we could settle this thing pretty easily, right? Yeah. Turns out, I’m a real bastard to negotiate with.”

    Writers try end-around


    2007 - 12.16

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    Keep the medical supplies handy, it looks like we’re in this one for the long haul. The WGA announced this weekend that, due to Hollywood producers insisting several of the writers’ union demands be taken off the table as a precondition for further negotiations, the WGA will now attempt to negotiate individually with each studio.

    The company behind Late Night with David Letterman is one of the few producers likely to break ranks and negotiate with the WGA individually; they have stated their openness to reaching an interim agreement based on the WGA’s current list of demands, in order to get their show back on the air.

    Few other producers are expected to be quite so accommodating to the WGA.

    The maneuver is expected to only deepen the divide between producers and writers, which could extend the strike, already about six weeks old, into a conflict that could soon be measured in months rather than weeks. The losers in this ongoing conflict are viewers and the thousands of employees being let go with no rehiring guarantee, due to the work stoppage.

    Journeyman all but canceled – Bionic Woman in limbo


    2007 - 12.13

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    I’m not sure if even Viewers for Quality Television can help out this time; without Heroes as a lead-in, the mildly sci-fi NBC drama Journeyman has been all but canceled; the network had until Tuesday, December 12, to pick the series up for the “back nine” episodes, but failed to do so, which releases the cast and crew.

    Call it a back-door cancellation. Star Kevin McKidd may need a Raleigh personal injury lawyer to overcome the stiff-arm the network game the freshman series. All 13 initial episodes will air on NBC, so at least there’s that.

    Chuck and Life have been picked up for the full season order, as previously reported here on HollywoodIdiocy.com. As for Bionic Woman, the show has lost Katie Sackoff, who played the pre-Jamie Summers Bionic Woman and proved more popular than the show’s lead actress. Bionic Woman’s future is ticking away faster than it can bleed Nielsens in the direction of Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares.

    New Knight Rider will be bitter Iraq War vet?


    2007 - 12.13

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    Count on the new, unabashedly liberal head of NBC, Ben Silverman, to come up with this kind of claptrap; the concept of the newly remade Knight Rider series is that the new KITT is a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR (which I don’t mind) and will be driven by Justin Bruening of CBS’ Cold Case. The kicker is that Bruening’s character will be, and I quote from TVWeek.com, “Mike Tracer (Bruening), a 23-year-old ex-Army Ranger, whom Sarah hasn’t seen since he left home at 18. Having served in Iraq, Mike is now jaded and lost and initially resistant.”

    The new KITT might need some truck accessories, given that it will have a normal mode, a high-speed attack mode and a driverless remote mode, perhaps a nod to this past summer’s Transformers movie. Yet the new KITT is the least of the problems here.

    Injecting politics into the escapist fun that any new Knight Rider series ought to be will prove to be a poor choice, especially considering that the troop surge is working. And what’s with getting Arrested Development’s Will Arnatt as the voice of KITT? That’s a diseased choice. If NBC really wanted a cool voice for the new KITT – since the original voice, Magnum P.I.’s John Hillerman, is no longer available at age 74, apparently – they could have gone for many better choices.

    Like who? Oh, how about Hugh Laurie? Sure, he’s tied to House but Hillerman was tied to Magnum PI when the original Knight Rider debuted. And the “but they’re on different networks” objection doesn’t work, either; Magnum PI had Hillerman on CBS, while Knight Rider was on NBC originally.

    If Laurie can’t be signed, how about his old Brit-com partner, Stephen Frye? Or perhaps thrill videogame fans by casting voice actor David Hayter, of Metal Gear Solid fame? I’d even settle for The Office (UK version)/Extras actor Ricky Gervais. Or Christopher Eccleston of Doctor Who and Heroes fame? Or even David Tennant, the current Doctor?

    All of these would be worlds better than Arnatt. Looks like Knight Rider will be headed toward the same “blew it big-time” path that last year’s Studio 60 and this year’s Bionic Woman have traveled.

    CBS may turn to Showtime’s Dexter


    2007 - 12.09

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    It may need to be heavily edited for broadcast TV, but one of Showtime’s most critically-acclaimed shows may provide the Eye network with some “fresh” programming in the strike-shortened season that’s headed our way after the first of the year. CBS is considering airing the first two seasons of Showtime’s Dexter, which will expose the cleverly-written show to a broader audience that doesn’t necessarily subscribe to Showtime.

    The drama, headlined by Michael C. Hall, focuses on the saga of a serial killer who works as a police CSI blood-splatter specialist by day, and preys on other serial killers by night. The first season of Dexter garnered rave reviews and the soon-to-be-completed second season has overachieved in the eyes of critics who expected a sophomore slump form the witty drama, based on the 2004 Jeffrey Lindsay novel, Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Two more novels have followed, 2005’s Dearly Devoted Dexter and 2007’s Dexter In the Dark. If the show performs well on CBS, it could be a money making move that results in diamond pendants for everyone; if it falters, it could show that viewers have little tolerance for shows that have already appeared on other networks being repurposed for broadcast network airings. Time will tell.

    While the Showtime drama features a fair amount of nudity and a heavy dose of profanity compared to traditional network fare, the important aspect in picking up the show for network rebroadcast, from CBS’s point of view, is that there are 24 completed episodes completed that, so far, only Showtime subscribers – and those who bought the Season One DVDs – have seen before now.

    In other news, freshman sitcom The Big Bang Theory and freshman vampire drama Moonlight have both received second-season orders from the Eye network; The Big Bang Theory is a Chuck Lorre Productions show that did well in the eight episodes completed prior to the strike; Moonlight has about 12 to 14 episodes in the can, with roughly 10 episodes aired so far. It is unclear whether the second-season orders will consist of 22 new episodes plus the uncompleted episodes from the first season, or if the uncompleted first season episodes and scrapped and storylines planned for the first season will be moved into the second-season order, once the WGA writers strike is ultimately resolved.

    Thinking of others isn’t idiocy


    2007 - 12.06

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    Hollywood may be filled with idiocy, but not everything is stupid in this grand ol’ world of ours.

    Take Car Angel for example. Here’s a nonprofit company that accepts things like car donations and turns them into funds for giving away videos to kids and teens in need.

    Giving away videos might seem a bit odd; but their content is important and they’ve been able to help something like 2.4 million kids so far, so they must be doing something right.

    In Hollywood, with the writers strike, you have a lot of folks doing pretty well for themselves, fighting to do even better. If it all seems a little narcissistic, it probably is. That’s why it’s nice to see a group like this, thinking of others. Especially at the height of the holiday season.

    Happy Hanukkah!

    New media residuals: real differences


    2007 - 12.06

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    The devil’s always in the details.

    When producers offered writers a proposal last week that guaranteed millions more in payments over a three-year deal, it sounded good to the uneducated observer. But now new details of the producers’ proposal and the writer’s recent counter-proposal have become available, and the two sides are not as close as it first seemed.

    While some sources claimed the only significant difference was $120 million versus $150 million over the next three years, as we reported earlier, the differences are more detailed and in-depth. In fact, the two sides stand rather far apart.

    According to Bloomberg.com, producers wanted to offer writers a $139 flat-fee residual when shows are broadcast on the Web or other new media sources, regardless of the number of viewings or “airings.”

    The WGA is eschewing the flat-fee concept and want stepped payments based on a percentage of so-called “applicable minimum” per 100,000 views or “airings.” What does that amount to in real dollars?

    Well, an hour-long series episode “applicable minimum” is $632, and it’s $348 for a half-hour show. Writers want only three percent of this applicable minimum, per 100,000 downloads/viewings/whatever.

    That would be $18.96 per hour-long show, $10.44 per half-hour show.

    For unpopular shows, $18.96 or $10.44 isn’t much; but with popular shows, the money could vary greatly from the flat fee producers were offering.

    For example, let’s imagine an episode of the office is offered via iTunes and Verizon Wireless and Sprint TV. Let’s say new media goes wild over this episode and these figures result: 3.25 million iPod owners download it via iTunes. 1,335,000 view it on Verizon, while only 196,000 view it on their Sprint phones.

    3.25 is rounded up to 3.3 for 33 times 100,000.

    1.33 is rounded down to 1.3 for 13 times 100,000.

    0.19 is rounded up to 0.2 for two times 100,000

    That’s a show that, therefore, had 33 plus 13 plus two times the applicable minimum fee. The Office is a half-hour show, so the three percent of the applicable minimum in this case is $10.44

    48 times $10.44 is $501.12.

    Getting a 48x hit episode might be hard to come by, but when it does come along, $501.12 is a whole lot better than a $139 flat fee, wouldn’t you say? That’s what the strike is about, apparently. And at three percent, the writers share grows only as studio/producer profits also grow.

    Makes sense to me, WGA!

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