Big News of the Week: Television Shows Back on the Big Screen: From Star Trek to Firefly I cannot think of any canceled shows bringing back all their principle actors for a major movie (for years they have had made for TV movie reunions and re-cast big budget flicks). But this past summer saw the resurrection of both Sex and the City and The X-Files both to moderate success.
Maybe thanks to those movies, just in the past week or so there has been a lot of buzz of resurrecting a few gone before their time. First the on again off again movie resurrection of Arrested Development (which was predicted by Maeby in the series finale) looks to be on again as Mitch Hurwitz and Ron Howard recently have signed on to write the script with Jeffery Tambor saying in an interview fans “can be sure it’s happening.” While Jason Bateman “hopes to start filming next summer.”
Also being booting around the rumor mill since its demise is a Veronica Mars movie that has been fueled by both Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell stating they’d be up for it, which tends to be the first question any interviewers asks about. Recently Thomas mentioned that he has started an outline and hopes to get it hammed out during the holiday seasons. What could help in giving him more time is ABC recently cutting the number of Cupid episodes down to nine. Also helping out is Bell finally getting killed off of Heroes this week. If only you could see my happy dance.
The most recent possible second chance is the HBO series Rome where creator Bruno Heller (who recently created The Mentalist) was quoted this week as saying talks of a movie “Is moving along. It’s not there until it is there (Scooter’s note: how Yogi Berry of him). I would love to round that show off.” Each episode of Rome seemed like a movie so this may be the most natural transition.
Of course I would be happy if just one of these shows live on as if I were to make a list of the greatest television show of the ’00, those three shows at the very least would be in the discussion for the top ten. Granted I am cautiously optimistic than any of them happen because I am still waiting for the promised Angel movies that have yet come to fruition. But with the success of Twilight, there is rumors that Buffy the Vampire Slayer may get resurrected too, which actually started as a really crappy movie.
Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:
Coalition Links of the Week: Buzz suggested a few possible scenarios for the Gossip Girl spinoff. (BuzzSugar)
GMMR shared some news and pics from her recent visit to the set of Privileged. (Give Me My Remote)
The holiday season has arrived and with it a brand new TV Advent Calendar including our favorite advent "treat" this week... How to make a holiday work wheel à la The OC and Seth Cohen's Chrismakkuh Work Wheel. (RTVW Online)
Vance fell behind in TV blogging November sweeps so did a little blogging cleaning up on over a dozen shows. (Tapeworthy)
This week, Jace took a look back at those five suggestions to improve Fringe that he made in October to see if the writers had addressed any of them since then. (Televisionary)
Our national nightmare came and went. Dan evaluated Rosie's debacle of a variety show. (TiFaux)
TV Spy got a bit bogged down making the huge Christmas double issue of TV & Satellite Week. But somehow, amid all the madness and mince pies, Ben and Gareth found time to ponder Heroes: The Eclipse Pt2, and reckoned they spotted some definite signs of improvement. Phew! (TV Spy)
This week, the TV Addict got an exclusive update on the status of the Veronica Mars movie from Papa Mars himself, Enrico Colantoni. (The TV Addict)
Kate was a little sad to see Stylista's surgically enhanced little fashion urchin get the boot. (TV Filter)
Free Download of the Week: Brooklyn (Go Hard) - Jay-Z featuring Santogold (Rcrd Lbl): I have been critical of Jay-Z’s unretirement, but this is the first of his songs that really matches any of his preretirement work.
Video of the Week: The first of ABC Family’s new programming for 25 Days of Christmas debuts next Saturday. Here is a preview of A Misers Brother’s Christmas. Personally I am looking forward to the sequel to Snow the following day.
Next Week Pick of the Week: Leverage, Tuesday at 9:00 on TBS: The show actually premieres tomorrow after The Librarian (see Previewing The Librarian), but for those that forget, the first episode reruns Tuesdays because it settles into its regular timeslot at 10:00 right after. Barring the apocalypse, I should have more on the show coming up Tuesday.
It is nice the best idea to call your movie The Librarian because people may think it is the most boring thing ever or possibly something you find in the naughty section of your video section. This isn’t helped much when Noah Wyle (ER) is said librarian. But The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice works in a low budget, quirky Indiana Jones kind of way with Wyle playing the librarian / treasure hunter perfectly and actually believably.
The movie is the third in the series but if you are like me and stayed away based on the title alone; you can jump right in without missing anything. Except I did spent the first ten minutes trying to figure out if what I was seeing was some sort of dream sequence or was actually happening (it was happening). But once that is figured out, it turns out to be a nice set up to what’s to come.
And by the title you could tell trying to find the Judas Chalice is what is to come. This leads Wyle to New Orleans where he is guided around the city by Stana Katic who disappeared from Heroes as quickly as she appeared in accordance to the show only keeping around bad actors in unlikable roles and Katic’s wi-fi character was just too interesting to stay on the show and whose flimsiness in this role is even more entertaining. Her costumes don’t hurt either.
Joining Wyle in returning roles are Bob Newhart (Newhart) and Jane Curtin (Kate & Allie) as Wyle’s bosses and caretakers of the library. But both veterans take a back seat to Wyle to the point you wonder why put such big names in such small roles. Joining them for this go around is Bruce Davidson (Knight Rider; um, the crappy version; well, the latest crappy version) as a professor kidnapped by Wyle’s nemesis in the film in order to get to the Chalice before Wyle does.
The plot twists in the movie are somewhat predictable, but the ride to the ending is enjoyable enough to over look that and New Orleans is a character upon itself and a cab driver that picks up Wyle upon his arrival to the city steals all the scenes he is in. The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice premieres this Sunday at 8:00 on TNT. It also reairs on Tuesday at 7:00.
The Grammy Nomination special, the first time in prime time, was just a silly exhibition. With that said if they do it next year, I’m totally watching. Especially if the Foo Fighters sing more Carly Simon songs and announce country songs. I did like that they had singers perform songs in the Hall of Fame instead of just trotting out their latest hits. And as an added bonus we wintness John Mayer’s attempt at the worst goatee ever, even worse than my attempt when I was seventeen. Here were the nominations announced last night:
Wow, for the first time since I can remember there is no token rock groups, instead we get Duffy and Adele who are for all intents and purposes are the same person. I would pick either of them but they could split the vote (and Amy Winehouse won last year) which could open the door for someone else.
In the biggest shocker of the night, Ne-Yo gets a nomination over Grammy darling Alicia Keys whose As I Am landed at the top of my Best Albums of 2007. Not that any of this matters because they might as well hand the gramophone to Plant and Krause right now. Hey, it will be a step up from Herbie Hancock singing Joni Mitchell.
Plain and simply, Plant and Krauss will be favored in every catergory they are nominated in. But all these songs were really sub-par to me although I really can’t thing of anything better off the top of my head.
Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group Royal Flush - Big Boi featuring Raekwon and Andre 3000 Swagga Like Us - Jay-Z featuring T.I. and Kanye West Mr. Carter - Lil Wayne featuring Jay-Z Wish You Would - Ludacris featuring T.I. Put On - Young Geezy featuring Kanye West
Really all that needs to be said about this is that rap were royals, there would be a lot of inbred prince and princesses.
If there were any justice M.I.A. would take this home, but sadly the combination Plant and Krause are the front runner. The biggest omission has to be Duffy’s Mercy which is far catchier than Chasing Pavement. It is also odd that Lewis is here instead of Duffy yet not in Best New Artist.
Surprising they omitted Song of the Year from the broadcast, here are those nominations American Boy - William Adams, Keith Harris, Josh Lopez, Caleb Speir, John Stephens, Estelle Swaray & Kanye West, songwriters (Estelle Featuring Kanye West) Chasing Pavements - Adele Adkins & Eg White, songwriters (Adele) I'm Yours - Jason Mraz, songwriter (Jason Mraz) Love Song - Sara Bareilles, songwriter (Sara Bareilles) Viva La Vida - Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion & Chris Martin, songwriters (Coldplay)
Now here’s the catergory for me because I could vote for any of these, well maybe not the Estelle song. Not sure why that is nominated for a song writing award.
It is late and I am tired so I really can’t go threw all 100+ awards, okay I’m not going to bed because right after the Grammy special there was Adriana Lima taking off her clothes. But anyways. Head over to Grammy.com for the complete rundown.
There is no bigger scam than the “Deluxe Edition,” a phenomenon where record labels add a couple songs onto a new album a couple months after it was originally released to squeeze a couple more dollars out of their investment knowing the fanatics will grab both. Coldplay has been nice enough to release the bonus tracks added to Viva la Vida as an ad on to the disk or you can buy it separately as Prospekt’s March.
The addendum features four new songs recorded during the Viva la Vida sessions (not including the forty-five second piano laced Postcards from Far Away), adds lyrics to Life in Technicolor II, adds a Jay-Z rap to Lost+ (that detracts the song), and a remix for Lovers in Japan (that sounds none different from the original). As for those four new songs it is not surprisingly that they were left off the album proper because none would have added anything to it and would have been inexchangeable with some of the filler that did make the album.
The closest thing to a stand out is the album closer Now My Feet Won’t Touch the Ground. A stripped down song with just an acoustic guitar with some weird sound creeping in near the end that balloons into a brass band that is reminiscent of the hidden track off of X&Y, but doesn’t quite have the gravitas of ‘Til Kingdom Come.
iTunes and Amazon MP3 has made compilation albums obsolete. Why buy a whole album when you can just buy the one or two songs that you know you like? But you can look at Sounds Eclectic: The Next One as more of a sampler as unless you are an indie music fan you may not now any of the artist let alone any of the songs as Spoon and The Shins lead the album in name recognition.
And the album does live up to its name with an array of different style from the sweeping epic by The Swell Session (you may remember them from winning the most recent Oscar for Best Original Song), the synthetics of Architecture in Helsinki, the quirky pop of The Ting-Tings, the hipster rock of Sea Wolf, and the haunting vibe of Bat for Lashes. All the songs were performed live at radio station KCRW and there are untouched from their original performance. So if you are looking for some new music, this may be the place to look.
Life must be fun inside the mind of Brandon Flowers. Usually when a band’s latest album gets panned by critics and fans alike, a band would like to go back to the drawing board and try something different or go back that got them praise in the first place. Instead of scrapping the whole Sam’s Town concept, Flowers decided continue with that concept on Day & Age and decided to take it a step further by saying the new album is Sam’s Town but in space. I wish that is what could explain Flowers adding feathers to his Spaghetti Western attire, but sadly I don’t get it.
Also Brandon Flowers’ mind is also the only where the phrase, “Are we human or are we dancer” is an obvious Hunter S. Thomson reference. Thanks to the song that lyrics belongs to, Human as well as the other song they debuted prior to the release of Day & Age, expectations were low that The Killers could break from the sophomore slump of Sam’s Town.
But something happened on the way to space where everything else on Day & Age clicked, something the band had trouble doing in their earlier ambitions from the horns of Losing Touch, the chanting in This Is Your Life, the steel drums of I Can’t Stay, and the epic A Dustland Fairytale that sweeps from a piano opening to a soaring orchestration all in under four minutes that gets closer to the Springsteen homage that they never quite reached on Sam’s Town. They even talk about girls in their summer clothes, “Saw Cinderella in a party dress / But she was looking for a nightgown.”
The band even gets back to their New Wave roots on Joy Ride. Then there is the ominous seven minute Goodnight, Travel Well that sounds like it was born off of Tranilize but pumped with steroids. The last two albums that formed in the mind of Brandon Flowers may have been hit or miss, but the guy is definitely giving us something to talk about. Now if he would just bottle up whatever he has been drinking to get there.
There are countless number of A Christmas Carol remakes and reinvasionings, from The Muppets to Tori Spelling have all put their twist on the classic Charles Dickens tale. But for my money, the best of them is Bill Murray’s (Caddyshack) turn of a penny pinching miser in Scrooged. The tale takes into the corporate world with Murray playing a television executive also trying to make A Christmas Carol more modern.
The updated ghosts make the movie with The Ghost of Christmas Past played by Buster Poindexter (Hot Hot Hot) as a cabbie while Carol King (The Princess Bride) turns the Ghost of Christmas Present into a pixie who isn’t afraid to resort to physical violence to get her point across. But the most memorable character was a new one, a shotgun toting disgruntled fired Bobcat Goldthwait (Police Academy 2) bent on revenge.
The movie also featured one of my favorite holiday songs; Put a Little Love in Your Heart by Al Green and Annie Lennox, a song so good it is worth playing all year round. Christmas just doesn’t seem like Christmas when I don’t happen across this movie during the holiday making it this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame.
As a wide man once told me, this is the most wonderful time of the year. And you can see it in all the Christmas traditions. Let’s face it, Christmas songs and movies are not the best written things ever, but yet each December we enjoy them both with a smile on our faces and not pick them apart like we do non-holiday themed entertainment the rest of the year. I know I will be cozying up next to the fire more than one night with ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas. Here are the new features this year as well as the full schedule:
A Miser Brothers' Chrismas (Saturday December 13 at 8:00) - Starring Mickey Rooney, reprising his role as Santa Claus from the holiday classic The Year Without a Santa Claus, ABC Family’s new original special A Miser Brothers’ Christmas tells the story of how Santa throws out his back, potentially spoiling Christmas for boys and girls all over the world. The story begins when Santa’s new chief mechanic, Tinsel, creates a speedy, new high tech sleigh for Christmas. But what Santa doesn’t know is that North Wind has secretly sabotaged the sleigh in the hope of taking Santa’s place that year. When Santa takes it out for a spin, he gets caught in the crossfire between the feuding Snow Miser and Heat Miser Brothers and the sleigh crashes, causing Santa to hurt his back. North Wind frames the Miser Brothers for Santa’s accident, and with Santa stuck in bed, everything falls into place for North Wind to slyly come to the rescue. But much to his chagrin, Mother Nature punishes the Miser Brothers by forcing them to put their differences aside and fill in for Santa. Encores: 12/19 at 7:00, 12/21 at 12:00, 12/24 at 7:00.
Snow 2: Brain Freeze (Sunday December 14 at 8:00) - Tom Cavanagh reprises his role as Nick Snowden, aka "Santa," in Snow 2: Brain Freeze. Nick is preparing for his biggest day of the year - Christmas! In the rush of getting his reindeer ready, he jumps through his magic mirror and hits his head upon landing, causing Nick to lose his memory and forget who he is! With just days before Christmas, his wife Sandy (Ashley Williams), is desperate to find her husband and enlists the help of her old boyfriend Buck (Patrick Fabian), who pretends to help but has no true intention of reuniting them. With the help of some new friends, Nick’s memory starts to trickle back, but will he remember that he is Santa in time for Christmas? Encores: 12/14 at 10:00, 12/17 at 9:00, 12/20 at 1:00.
Christmas in Wonderland (Saturday December 20 at 8:00) - With a recent move and tough financial times, the Saunders family is facing a bleak Christmas. With the kids moping around home, Wayne Saunders (Patrick Swayze) decides to try and make the best out of the holiday by taking the family to the mall to get much needed Christmas decorations and presents. But when the two youngest kids come across a bag full of money, they believe that their Christmas just got a whole lot brighter. Unfortunately for them, the bag belongs to two bumbling crooks in the middle of a counterfeit heist and if they don’t get it back, their boss (Carmen Electra) will have their heads. The movie also stars Chris Kattan and Tim Curry. Encore: 12/20 at 10:00, 12/24 at 11:00 AM.
finally paid off. (Chuck, Chuck)
) and Jane Curtin (
) as Wyle’s bosses and caretakers of the library. But both veterans take a back seat to Wyle to the point you wonder why put such big names in such small roles. Joining them for this go around is Bruce Davidson (
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on my 
remakes and reinvasionings, from The Muppets to Tori Spelling have all put their twist on the classic Charles Dickens tale. But for my money, the best of them is Bill Murray’s (
) turn of a penny pinching miser in Scrooged. The tale takes into the corporate world with Murray playing a television executive also trying to make A Christmas Carol more modern.
) turns the Ghost of Christmas Present into a pixie who isn’t afraid to resort to physical violence to get her point across. But the most memorable character was a new one, a shotgun toting disgruntled fired Bobcat Goldthwait (
) bent on revenge.
– ABC Family Premiere
(Live Action)
– Basic Cable Premiere
- Johnny Depp version
– Basic Cable Premiere
– ABC Family Premiere
– Basic Cable Premiere
