Archive for category Casting alert

Kevin Brockman and friend address the TCA. Photo courtesy of ABC

You can assume it’s  going to be an interesting day when the network you’re covering has lost its head…of entertainment programming. This kind of thing happens quite a bit. Usually lawyers get involved, as is the case ABC’s freshly ousted head of entertainment Steve McPherson.

Then there’s the question of handling the next guy, Paul Lee. Two days ago, Lee was the former head of entertainment programming for ABC Family, a.k.a. the guy who gave us “Kyle XY,” “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” and “Pretty Little Liars.”  Now the mothership’s  programming lineup and overall reputation is in his hands.

ABC’s publicity department was quick to put the kibosh on any questions about McPherson, however. On Sunday morning publicity head Kevin Brockman came to the podium to welcome critics, accompanied a gigantic stuffed pink elephant. Talk about getting literal.  Following brief announcements, he informed the room that last Tuesday’s statement on McPherson’s departure holds, and no further questions would be answered. With that, Lee took the stage and Brockman exited, taking Dumbo with him.

Generally a move like this would result in some sort of upheaval but frankly, people like Lee. A little more about him: He also breathed new life into BBC America and did some good work at Auntie Beeb before that.  The guy seems straightforward and slightly in awe at the job that has fallen in his lap.

ABC Entertainment President Paul Lee talks to critics on Sunday.

“I think there’s a whole load of brand equity there,” Lee told critics, referring to the hits ABC has built over the past few years.

Yes, having new blood at the top can be a very good thing, unless you happen to be the producers and stars of one of the new shows premiering  during 2010-2011. None of the new dramas and comedies set to premiere in fall or midseason, including “Mr. Sunshine” starring erstwhile “Friend” Matthew Perry (who experienced a legendarily awkward moment himself) are Lee’s babies.

Lee has also proven that his love for his own discoveries does not blind him to the reality of ratings, which he cited himself when he professed his adoration for “The Middle Man,” a wonderful ABC Family series that was cancelled after one season. If he’s willing to do that with a show running on cable, where the stakes aren’t nearly as high as they are on network…well, let’s just say the new showrunners must be quaking in their boots.  The ratings and creative development of every new show will be under scrutiny, but we’re betting Lee will be closely watching the following…

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It’s a funny thing, TCA Press Tour. On the one hand, as Daily Beast editor Kate Aurthur pointed out in a tweet, the networks profess to hate it. The Tour costs them a lot of money, time, and sanity.  They put on a show for us, and often get nothing but griping about their products in return.

Without Press Tour, however, think of all the wrangling they’d have to do when major TV news implosions occur. Phones would be ringing off the hook. Reporters would be jockeying for position and screaming if they don’t get the story angles they want when they want it. Mass hysteria.

Tour is also something of a mixed blessing for TV writers. Entertainment business news is breaking all the time, but it certainly seems to go nuclear when most of us are brought together in a hotel ballroom. Often the news is very inside baseball, such as the sudden resignation of ABC Entertainment head Steve McPherson on the first day of Tour, followed shortly by trade reports that he was the subject of a sexual harrassment probe. Critics care because McPherson’s the guy we talk to about ABC’s lineup, and as such, some of us like to imagine we have something of a relationship with him.

So things of this nature happen, we express shock! (Not really.) Alarm! (Actually, executives get spectacularly booted all the time. Right, Ben Silverman?) Then we sharpen our knives for the network’s executive session. Sadly, the word is that ABC isn’t having one. (UPDATE: On Friday ABC announced that ABC Family’s Paul Lee had officially been named as McPherson’s successor, so there will be a short  session on Sunday after all.)

This news has very little impact on the typical viewer. As such, it was quickly swept under the rug when Fox’s (highly orchestrated?) “Idol” bombshell exploded late this afternoon in the form of a Variety story announcing Ellen DeGeneres‘ sudden and not altogether surprising exit, either by choice or by force. That, people care about.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit.  “Idol” dominated the early evening news, but Showtime opened the day with four panels, three of them actually worth our time.

The day started with a tour of “The Big C,“  which stars Laura Linney and officially premieres August 16, although you can watch the pilot right now. In the half-hour dramedy, Linney plays a woman who receives a cancer diagnosis and decides to take what time she has left and live it to the fullest.

Whether the show becomes a hit depends largely on how much people are willing to spend time with a character who may be outlandish and hilarious, but is dying before their eyes.  It’s a tough sell. But there’s no denying the cast’s chemistry and the absolute luminosity of Laura Linney. The entire panel was something of an eat-pray-love fest as the stars talked about the beauty of living in the now. After Oliver Platt asked, “Why do we start to live beautifully when we get a death sentence?” and Gabourey Sidibe pointed out, “whatever plan you have for your life, you are wrong a lot of times,” it was hard not to commit for at least a few installments.

Once that panel’s high wore off, though, I remembered a vexing truth about Showtime comedies: they’re not particularly funny. “Comedy” seems to be a term the premium cable channel uses because it’s more succinct than “half-hour oddity,” or “30-minute award nomination bait.”

Happily we were reminded of that by watching the clip for “Episodes,” an upcoming comedy about a disastrous American remake of a nice British series.  The clip reel was genuinely hilarious, and what exchanges we saw between series star Matt LeBlanc and his British co-stars Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan were gut-busting.

Executive producers and writers David Crane (“Friends”) and Jeffrey Klarik (“The Class”) consistently made us giggle as they described the horrific sausage making process a series goes through as its churned through the Hollywood machine, which is precisely what “Episodes” is about. It’s a shame we have to suffer through a slew of substandard comedies this fall while we wait for it; “Episodes” premieres in January.

Keep reading for more details on “Dexter” and a breakdown of the CW panels.

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