HollywoodIdiocy.com

President George W. Bush will make a surprise appearance on NBC’s Howie Mandel-hosted game show, Deal or No Deal, to wish contestant Captain Joseph Kobes well in his quest to win the game show and thank him for his service to his country. Capt. Kobes has served in Iraq for three tours of duty and has won both the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star, two of the highest honors given by the US government.

Bush’s message was taped at the White House and is an appropriate honor for a serviceman who has given so much for his country during a time of war. While NBC did not reveal whether Captain Kobes fared well in his quest for as much as $1 million, you can bet his elation at a message from his commander in chief did not elicit a taciturn response and would have set off motion sensor lights when he saw it.

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CityTV viewers in the great white north will benefit from a special scheduling situation this Monday night. The Canadian broadcaster will be transmitting the final two pre-strike episodes of the dramady CHUCK, about a reluctant spy, in its regular Monday night time slot. All NBC affiliates, including Canadian NBC affiliates, will still be airing the final two Chuck episodes on Thursday as planned, scheduled on either side of an all-new episode of Celebrity Apprentice.

The show’s brief return from hiatus marks a successful pre-strike run for the dramady, which typically aired on Monday nights in the fall, as a lead-in to HEROES. It is one of a handful of select shows already renewed for next season, thanks in part to the strike-shortened timeframe of the show’s run. Another freshman NBC drama from the Monday fall schedule, Journeyman, a personal favorite of HollywoodIdiocy.com, was not as fortunate; not only has the show been canceled, but the studio apparently tore up its agreement with the writer-producer of the show as part of a strike tactic.

One things for sure, owning a pair of disposable gloves might be necessary to avoid all the dust that’s going to be settling once this strike is done and over with.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Perhaps the writers strike isn’t going to be the big deal some are anticipating.

Word on the street is that Ben Silverman and NBC are interested in developing a spin-off of The Office, which could potentially air next season. No word on casting, although industry buzz says it’ll be an all-new cast, not some lame Jim and Pam-based deal.

Now, I’m a fan of The Office, but I do think overkill can destroy not only the spinoff, but the original.

The US version of The Office is already a spinoff of a much more brilliant BBC version of the show, penned by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who are currently laboring on a third season of Extras, from the sound of things.

The US version nearly bombed due to overblown US portrayals, and it was only in the second season, when the comedy style became a bit more restrained and subtle that the show began to catch on with US audiences.

But another version of The Office? Definitely overkill.

Sure, it would be an all-new cast. Yes, I understand that series cast members like Steve Carell and company are becoming hot properties and maintaining the cast may quickly become too spendy in the long term.

Yet, is the answer really a substandard spin-off?

Already, names being cast about to headline a second Office are the likes of Ed O’Neill, Mike Myers and Jim Carrey.

First, I doubt Carrey would do it, that Myers would be good at it, or that O’Neill would be well-suited to the role. Better to go with Carell’s Comedy Central pal, Stephen Colbert and capture lightning in a bottle for a second time. The only real question is whether he’d be willing to walk away from a guaranteed hit like The Colbert Report to live in the shadow of comparison that’s sure to hang over any second Office series.

In the end, it would be better to just pony up to the current cast on renewal, set an end-date for the series, and write with that in mind. Which means it’s more likely that before long, NBC’s sitcom lineup will look like CBS’s CSI line-up:

Mondays: The Office: Birmingham
Tuesdays: The Office: Ames
Wednesdays: The Office: Portland
Thursdays: The Office
Fridays: My Name Is The Office

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