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News, scoops, reviews and more from TV land.
Bill Clinton's nominating speech: View from the couch
Photo credit: Getty Images
Howabout that nominating speech last night by Bill Clinton? Stirring, eloquent, forceful, thoughtful, passionate, conciliatory, humane, comprehensive and . . . long. Very long. Forty-eight minutes and change long. So long that about 11:15, ABC cut away to a delegate yawning very loudly. Cameras panned across glazed eyes. A quick glance up at Michelle Obama in the expensive house seats revealed someone...
Read more »TNT: 'The Closer' sets finale record
Photo credit: TNT
The Aug. 13 finale of "The Closer" was a big deal - we can all agree on that - but who knew it would be a record-breaking deal? Per TNT, it was just that. According to the wizardry of seven-day plus - Nielsen's cumed calculation of real-time viewing as well as time-shifted viewing on DVRs, etc. - the finale was seen by 11.2 million viewers, making it the most watched series finale in basic cable history. It slipped past previous record-holder "Monk," at 10.6 million. "Closer's" closing helped "Major Crimes," which launched with 9.5 million viewers, itself the most viewed new series launch in basic cable history, per TNT.
'Breaking Bad' creator talks future
Photo credit: AP
"Breaking Bad" wrapped the first half of its last season Sunday and — spoiler alert — something happened. Just kidding: Plenty happened as you know, most notably the fact that Walt brother-in-law and DEA ASAC Hank Schrader — was played so masterfully by yet another "BB" standout Dean Norris — now knows the true identity of "Heisenberg."
And much, much...
Read more »Rainn Wilson's 'The Farm' to be backdoor pilot
Photo credit: Handout
Interesting developments with Rainn Wilson's "The Farm" — an "Office" spinoff that may bow early next year. He writes on his Facebook page the show will be shot as a regular episode for "The Office" this season — in other words, as a backdoor pilot. He says the episode is being shot as we speak and, well . . . let him tell you:
Here's the deal with "The Farm"...
Read more »Craig Ferguson recalls Michael Clarke Duncan's trip to Scotland
Amusing recollection by Craig Ferguson of Michael Clarke Duncan's efforts to help promote the "Late Late Show's" recent trip to Scotland. Duncan died over the weekend. Take a look....
ABC: Before Jimmy Kimmel, there was Dick Cavett
Photo credit: Rob Rich/ SocietyAllure.com
Before Jimmy Kimmel moves to 11:35 this January on ABC where pundits have already declared he will "Change the Face of Late Night Forever," l wanted to take a quick look back at another ABC late night star who already changed late night, and changed it very much for the better: Dick Cavett.
(And before Cavett was Long Beach's own Les Crane, whose ABC late nighter was the first...
Read more »8 key moments in the 'Breaking Bad' final season so far
Photo credit: AP
You didn't honestly think I'd let the occasion of the midseason finale of "Breaking Bad" pass us by without some postgame thoughts, did you? Well, here they are, and apologies for this late post, but the Labor Day holiday intruded. The subject today: What were the top eight events/people/places/things in the first eight episodes of this, the final season, that were overwhelmingly important,...
Read more »'Live with Kelly and...' Michael Strahan
In the biggest non-surprise announcement of the new fall season, "Live with Kelly" anointed ex-Giants great Michael Strahan as Kelly Ripa's new co-host.
Strahan? Co-host? "Live?" Whyyyy!!??
Well, I'll tell you why as I did in this post last week: He's a big, full-of-life presence who's all personality and fills the screen literally and in all those other ways that are good on a chatty noisy show like this. Especially this: He's likable though not to Patriots fans. One merely needs to recall Strahan's legendary "we STOMPED YOU OUT" performance after the '08 Super Bowl victory, when he and his team got the keys to the city, or his equally Strahan-esque performance after this past Super Bowl — when he greeted each and every teammate on the podium as though HE were an extension of the Mara family . . . It was amazing and easy to forget Michael had been retired four years!
In other words, he's a ham, but he's fun and game. He's also a warrior, but doubtful he'll bring that aspect of his personality to the show. My prediction: This should work.
Northport veterans featured on 'CBS Evening News'
Here's a piece you won't want to have missed on Friday night's "CBS Evening News" by Steve Hartman, and in the event that you did, here it is again. About a pair of Korean War veterans - August “Gus” Angerame and Frank DiBella - now at the Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center; it's very moving. Take a look and here's a good background piece from the upstate newspaper, the Saratogian...
