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And 'Partners' cooked too
Photo credit: Smallz + Raskind
"Partners," a CBS . . . well, what difference does it make what it was? It's gone.
CBS has pulled the plug on one of the worst-received sitcoms of the fall season (Diane Werts, if memory serves, gave it an F for Newsday.).
This is no surprise, and the TV press that covers numbers has been speculating about its demise for weeks now. Repeats of "Two and a Half Men" will fill the Monday time slot for now.
'American Chopper' cancelled
Photo credit: AP
Big news from the (so-called) cancellation bear: The Discovery Channel is ending "American Chopper" after 10 years of chopping. "After 10 years and 233 episodes of incredible, riveting reality television, American Chopper will be ending its run," says Eileen O'Neill, group president, Discovery and TLC Networks, in a statement. "This series was one of the very first family-based reality programs on television. Special thanks to Pilgrim Studios for over a decade of great producing. The Teutuls have given us really innovative bike builds and real drama since 2002. We wish both Orange County Choppers and Paul Junior Designs the best."
And yes, this is a big deal. "Chopper" was born back in the formative years of reality — or unscripted — TV, and few figured a show about a couple of gnarly dudes at an upstate biker shop would turn into a big hit for TDC, though it did.
Think of it this way — without "American Chopper," there would be no "Hardcore Pawn," or a zillion other such workplace reality shows.
Hostess liquidation: A part of TV history dies
Photo credit: Getty Images
Hostess this morning sought permission from a bankruptcy court in White Plains to sell off it assets, effectively ending the life of a company that has a had a prominent commercial role on TV for well over half a century.
Wonder Bread and Twinkies were prominent early sponsors of an early medium; boomers, in particular, grew up with a barrage of Wonder Bread and Twinkies commercials, and here — in memoriam — are just a few.
'Liz & Dick' review: Lindsay Lohan not a total disaster
Photo credit: AP
It takes guts for an actress to play Elizabeth Taylor -- guts, hubris, talent, empathy and a pretty generous capacity for risk. You'll have to draw your own conclusions about which of these drew Lindsay Lohan to the role but it's a pretty fair guess the last two figured most prominently.
Famed child actresses ... a difficult (ahem) maturation process from childhood to adulthood ... and the media's beyond insatiable -- bordering on insane -- appetite for their off-screen antics. Comparisons end there.
Taylor won an Academy Award for "Butterfield 8," even while "Cleopatra" -- a 1963 albatross that nearly scuttled 20th-Century Fox -- was in production. She was famous in a way that almost doesn't even exist anymore -- more famous than kings or queens, by far. A human goddess who walked the very planet -- and that was weird, too.
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Then there's Lohan, famous for being infamous and out of work for pretty much longer than anyone can remember. But the overall problem that’s immediately apparent with "Liz & Dick," airing on Lifetime next Sunday -- is that Lohan's no Elizabeth Taylor.
No one is, of course, or ever could be. Taylor on screen, and doubtless off, exuded an earthy sensuality. Lohan doesn't. Taylor was a fine actress, occasionally a great one. Lohan's skills are rudimentary -- made rustier by a long absence from the screen. She delivers lines dutifully, competently,and at times woodenly, but she also looks like someone who has to think about what she has to say before she says it. That's usually called "sleepwalking through a role" instead of actually "occupying" one. Lohan is somewhere in-between most of the time, though closer to sleepwalking.
An example: "See, you have to understand, we enjoy fighting," says she when pitching for what would be one of Taylor's greatest roles ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.")
Undoubtedly that was true in real life (She and Richard Burton did divorce twice, after all) but there's no hint of that here. No hint of fire, of passion, of sparks, of love, of hate, of anything. (This, in other words, is a standard Lifetime biopic.)
Grant Bowler, meanwhile, hams up the role of Burton with so much bravado that it approaches parody at times. He's a good actor, but Burton was a huge, overwhelming presence, and like Taylor, much more than just an "actor:" son of a Welsh miner and one of the great stage figures of the time even before he set eyes on his dearly beloved Taylor years before the movie-that-nearly-sank-Fox was shot. (He left "Camelot" on Broadway for Rome and "Cleopatra.")
He was a famed swordsman too, and Taylor apparently matched him conquest for conquest. There's no one alive you can even compare them to -- Brangelina are bloodless and tame by comparison. They were wild, libidinous drunks, great talents, huger-than-life fixtures in the popular imagination who made their own rules, and broke their own rules -- over and over again.
Poor Linds doesn't and didn’t stand a chance.
The movie is set up as sort of a series of recollections, with Taylor and Burton on a dark set recalling the lurid past. Lohan's made up in dark red lipstick, light makeup and jet-black wig; it's a striking shot and in some ways the best part of this film. She's drained, weary and cynical -- almost bored with the story she's telling. But whatever sort of spell comes out of those fleeting scenes is shattered the moment the flashbacks begin.
Taylor first sees Burton across a crowded room, so to speak (actually, poolside at an LA party). She smirks. Next, he's on the set of "Cleopatra" and in a flashback says, "You were everything I ever wanted -- even when you looked at me with utter disdain, I thought you were luscious."
Or this, from Burton, who almost seems to be reviewing his own biopic here: "The performers know the lines...but they just keep coming out wrong..."
Yeah, these lines are laugh-out loud funny. But all told, will "Liz & Dick" be remembered as a joke or Lohan's long-awaited baby-step back toward professional respect? I'm going - perhaps generously - with the latter. "Liz & Dick" is not a complete disaster, nor entirely is Lohan. She is terribly rusty and miscast. She needed to occupy the role -- or as Simon Cowell might say -- "make it her own," and she doesn't begin even to scratch the surface. She almost seems like a kid thrown into an adult role. (In a sense she is.) But it's a first step, and that's better than no step at all.
Grade: C -
Joe Biden on 'Parks & Recreation'
Photo credit: AP
Missed the vice president's — that would be Joe Biden — cameo on “Parks & Recreation” last night? Here's a good clean clip that will bring you up to water-cooler speed instantly, or in 30-odd seconds.
As you know, Leslie Knope — Amy Poehler — has had a long, long crush on the veep, and finally, they meet face to face. This happened just before opening credits.
Discovery Channel special on the 'megastorm'
Photo credit: Howard Schnapp
The Discovery Channel's "Curiousity" series promises to take a particularly close look at Sandy this weekend (TDC, Sunday at 9), and sight unseen, it sounds/looks pretty good. Not exactly sight unseen - check out the promo below. Here's the throughline:
"...follows the action hour-by-hour from the hurricane's formation in the Caribbean through its intensification in Cuba...
Read more »In case you missed, Lindsay Lohan on 'Fallon'
Photo credit: Getty Images
Well, some people promote their forthcoming movies in the darnedest way — like Lindsay Lohan on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." She starred in the ongoing bit, "Let us Play with Your Look" . . . Amusing . . .
'Liz & Dick' producer recalls fun-filled days with Lindsay Lohan
Photo credit: Lifetime
Lindsay Lohan's return to the screen - and possibly even some measure of professional respect - is week and a half away, and Larry Thompson, the producer of Lifetime's "Liz & Dick" did a round of press interviews earlier today, explaining what he (and she) went through last summer during the shoot.
Oh last summer - the car crash, the NYC bump-and-run, the blow-out with her...
Read more »'Today' shakeup: New bosses in place
Photo credit: NBC
Final pieces of NBC's management overhaul at "Today" have finally fallen into place: Don Nash, an "NBC News" veteran with nearly a quarter century at the network, was named boss of the iconic show. He'll report to Alex Wallace who was earlier named executive In charge of "Today."
Per "NBC News" chief, Steve Capus: "Don Nash deserves to be...
Read more »Ellen [DeGeneres] reacts to [Sea Cliff's] Kate McKinnon
Photo credit: Fox
Sea Cliff's own Kate McKinnon did a pretty good impression of New Orlean's Own Ellen DeGeneres on “Saturday Night Live” this past weekend, and because McKinnon is from Long Island -- where Sea Cliff is -- then we're gonna pay a little bit extra special attention here to the talented McKinnon for parochial reasons.
Hence, this Ellen impression. In any event, on Tuesday's “Ellen,” the eponymous star (raising the question -- is the show named after Ellen or Ellen after the show? Whatever) poked fun at her own impression. This was funny, too. Take a look:
