which is odds on favorite to clean up at the awards later this month, one that re-imagined as a Vampire Hunter
, and this Sunday, a day before his shared holiday, the National Geographic Channel will be airing their first originally scripted drama, Killing Lincoln based on the book of the same name written by Bill O’Reilly.Despite being the title character, Lincoln is almost a secondary character with John Wilkes Booth taking center stage for most of the film. Lincoln is even dead by the halfway point (spoiler alert for those that fell asleep during history class and ignored the title of the film). With the focus on the murderer, there are plenty of facts that are brought up that I was unaware of (keep in mind I never read the book) like Booth originally planned to just kidnap Lincoln, along with Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward. Killing Lincoln may be the first in-depth look on the man who was the first to assassinate a sitting president. Even the film The Conspirator
, Booth was resigned to a background character.
) is the one who puts Lincoln’s top hat while Jesse Johnson (Don’s son) is the man behind the gun. It is hard to follow up Daniel Day-Lewis but Campbell play Abe with a calm cool while Johnson treats Booth as an overacting bad guy who pull everything from an actor’s arsenal short of twirling his mustache (probably because it is not long enough). The film is narrated by Tom Hanks who is show in what looks like an abandon stage set where he occasionally fiddles with plots I am not entirely sure ties in with what he is talking about.But Killing Lincoln is a profound look at one of the darkest days in our counties history with plenty of new information for anyone who has just read the textbook in history class (like it was actually the Chief Justice who conducted the murder investigation). It is also interesting how they portrayed John Wilkes Booth because I do not think it is a coincidences there are a few monologues that Booth sound exactly like what you would hear from a Tea Party member (and, ironically an O’Reilly viewer) talking today about Barack Obama. Killing Lincoln is certainly worth watching and I have a feeling that O’Reilly’s follow up book, Killing Kennedy, will be on air by next Presidents Day.
Killing Lincoln premieres Sunday at 8:00 on the National Geographic Channel. You can also check out the extended trailer below or check out the Interactive Killing Lincoln page.
only to kill him off in the two part series premiere but was not allowed because of financial reasons.)
- LL Cool J
. It is unclear when these interviews were tapped by Tina Fey mentioned a film she is filming with Steve Carell which I assumed was 2010’s 
.
and why you should never ask him for a picture, Newhart talks about who gave up with the iconic series finale and also puts country music fans on blast. Fey talks about portraying Sarah Palin while Apatow talks about his time being roommates with Adam Sandler. Drew Carey talks about how he missed his first chance to be on The Tonight Show and Wayans reminisces on his first gig… which was at a Racquetball convention.
with Steve Stiffler filling in for Tom Hanks, Ramona Flowers as the vet love interest and Carl Winslow would naturally get promoted to chief (surprisingly no studio executives have hired me as a consultant for their reboot departments yet). Despite all the time I have devoted to resurrecting the dog cop classic, I never gave much thought about how you train a K-9 unit.
and 
ending last year, if I am not mistaken one of the few doctors left on television last fall was Dr. Sheldon Cooper and as a theoretical physicist, he faints at the sight of blood so he won’t be performing surgery anytime soon. For those that miss the more traditional doctors, tonight sees the premiere of Monday Mornings created by David E Kelly, his first trek back into the operating room since creating Chicago Hope in 1994, and based on the book of CNN’s chief medical correspondent (and almost Surgeon General of the United States) Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
) sits down with his surgeons and makes everyone who made a mistake the previous week come up to the front of the lecture hall to explain in agonizing detail just what wrong in the operating room and what they should have done differently. These meetings are painful and Molina is relentless and scary in his line of questioning it is surprising he has not made one cry (yet). These scenes are so great that if these meeting made up the majority of the show I would be tuning in every week.
’s Jiminy Cricket) who cannot provide the consent for life-saving surgery.
), the Trauma Chief who is about as menacing as Alfred. The always intimidating Bill Irwin (
) is the local Chief of Transplantation who gets under the skin of the other doctors who thinks he just stands around hoping for their patients to die so he can harvest their parts. With all that hardheadedness, Jamie Barber (
) is the complete opposite of his co-workers who gets way too sensitive whenever he loses a patient (and my bet for the first doctor to cry at a Monday morning meeting). His partner, in possibly more ways than one, is Jennifer Finnigan (Committed) a neurosurgeon just as compassionate as Barber.
) as a Korean emigrant and English speaking challenged who gives simple blunt answers like when asked what the worse case scenario is, “worse case: dead.” The rest of the cast includes Sarayu Roa (
) who dates Finnigan’s real life husband Jonathan Silverman (
) and Emily Swallow (
), the most inexperienced doctor on staff.
: This month’s five dollar album deals include Prince, R.E.M., Jewel, and Ctpress Hill:
- Harry Connick Jr.
miniseries and in a month from now (3/3/13) they look to keep that momentum going with their next dramatization of historical events with the nine episode scripted series Vikings starring Gabriel Byrne and Jessalyn Gilsig. Check out the latest promo below:
, 
, switching 
to being filmed in front of a studio audience and the green lighting broader comedies like 
) which will have frat boys and Paul Ryan raging for another twenty years.