Archive for category TCA Winter Press Tour 2011
“Friday Night Lights,” “Game of Thrones” Among 2011 TCA Award Recipients
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Live Coverage, TCA Winter Press Tour 2011, TV News on August 7th, 2011
“Friday Night Lights,” “Mad Men” and its star Jon Hamm, as well as “Modern Family” and Ty Burrell, were among the programs and actors recognized by the Television Critics Association at its 27th Annual TCA Awards presentation.
“Parks and Recreation” star Nick Offerman not only hosted the event, but shared the award for Individual Achievement in Comedy with Burrell.
Both “Mad Men” and “Modern Family” are repeat TCA Award winners. This was “Mad Men’s” third award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama, and “Modern Family’s” second in the comedy category.
Also in attendance were Carl Reiner and Rose Marie, who accepted the Heritage Award on behalf of the cast and producers of “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”
The 27th Annual TCA Awards presentation was held Saturday evening at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.
Read on for the full list of 2011 TCA Award recipients.
Program of the Year:
“Friday Night Lights” (DirecTV/NBC)
Individual Achievement in Drama:
Jon Hamm (“Mad Men,” AMC)
Individual Achievement in Comedy: TIE
Ty Burrell (“Modern Family,” ABC) and Nick Offerman (“Parks and Recreation,” NBC)
Outstanding Achievement in News and Information:
“Restrepo” (National Geographic Channel)
Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming:
“Amazing Race” (CBS)
Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming:
“Sesame Street” (PBS)
Outstanding New Program:
“Game of Thrones” (HBO)
Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials:
“Masterpiece: Sherlock” (PBS)
Outstanding Achievement in Drama:
“Mad Men” (AMC)
Outstanding Achievement in Comedy:
“Modern Family” (ABC)
Career Achievement Award:
Oprah Winfrey
Heritage Award:
“The Dick Van Dyke Show”
HBO’s Sets Premiere Dates for “Boardwalk Empire,” “Enlightened” and Others
Posted by Melanie McFarland in TCA Winter Press Tour 2011, Tune In Info, TV News on July 28th, 2011
HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” currently nominated for 18 Emmys, will return for its second season at 9pm on September 25. The sophomore season of the critically-acclaimed drama, which stars Steve Buscemi as politician and crime boss Nucky Thompson, will consist of twelve episodes.
In addition to setting a debut for “Boardwalk,” HBO also announced that the 10-episode third season of “Hung” will kick off at 10pm on October 2, followed by the debut of “How to Make It in America’s” eight-episode second season at 10:30.
Premiere dates for “Boardwalk” as well as HBO’s other fall series, including the new Laura Dern comedy “Enlightened,” which bows on October 10, were revealed prior to the channel’s afternoon panels at the Television Critics Association’s Summer Press Tour, currently underway at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.
HBO kicked things off with the announcement that “Real Time with Bill Maher” had been picked up for a 10th season. As a surprise, a publicist then introduced Maher, who strolled to the podium and tried his best – really, he did – to entertain critics. Even on day three of Press Tour, that is basically a lost cause. The host then gave up with a deadpan declaration of, “Oh f–k it”… and sped right into introductions of HBO’s co-president Richard Plepler and programming president Michael Lombardo.
Perhaps the most surprising premiere news was “Bored to Death’s” third season kick off on October 10 at 9pm, followed by “Enlightened’s” debut at 9:30. This represents HBO’s first foray into airing original scripted comedy on Monday nights, a stomping ground that has heretofore been occupied by Showtime’s half-hour (not quite) comedy block.
“It wasn’t a strategic choice as much as it was trying to figure out how to air five shows in the fall,” Lombardo explained, adding that the channel is tempering its expectations for “Bored” and “Enlightened’s” rating performances on this untested night. Lombardo also expects that trends in shifted viewing through on demand services such as HBO Go will enable “Bored’s” and “Enlightened’s” audiences to find them and build over the course of their seasons. “We’re nervously optimistic,” he said.
In other developments, Plepler confirmed that the network is looking at drafts of two scripts for “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” that could eventually become films. He also told critics that a previously announced project from Tom Hanks is still in development.
“Luck,” another previously announced project from executive producers David Milch and Michael Mann, which is set to star Dustin Hoffman, will premiere in January. Expect it to run in the timeslot previously occupied by the recently departed “Big Love.”
ABC at TCA: Less Filling, Tastes…the Same.
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Commentary, TCA Winter Press Tour 2011, The Pick-Up Game, TV News on January 10th, 2011
"Pretty Little Liars" pane from left: E.P I. Marlene King, stars Shay Mitchell, Lucy Hale, Ashley Benson, Troian Bellisario and EP Oliver Goldstick. Photo courtesy of ABC Family/Rick Rowell
From a network’s perspective, the perk of having a decent line-up and a number of options for midseason means that you don’t have to wrangle the dogs and ponies to put on a show for TV reporters. Unfortunately, that also makes for a frustratingly light day of Press Tour.
Because of this, it was mostly quiet on the ABC front on Monday, although entertainment head Paul Lee kindly threw us a bone in the form of early renewal announcements; three comedies and three dramas got the green light for additional seasons. (Details are available here.)
Otherwise, although ABC has two comedies (“Happy Endings” and “Mr. Sunshine“) and two dramas (“Body of Proof” and “Off the Map“) on its midseason bench, ABC only held a panel for “Map” today. In fairness, the network presented the other three last summer.
Look out your window. Do you remember last summer? We barely do either.
“Off the Map” is new drama from “Grey’s Anatomy” executive producer Shonda Rhimes premieres Wednesday but, honestly, if you’ve seen “Grey’s,” you’ve already seen this show. Heck, you’ve held hands with this show and cried with it. An ugly cry. With snot and tears.
Scratch all that, though. “Map” is different because…well, because Rhimes and series creator and executive producer Jenna Bans say it is.
Bans explained that in this show, the doctors have to think of the jungle as their pharmacy. ” They don’t have the technology and resources at their disposal that they have on ‘Grey’s’ or ‘Private’ or ‘ER,’ or really any other medical show that’s been on TV in the last few years, so it really allows us to sort of delve into stories that no one else can really do,” she added.
True, putting earnest, hot young doctors in a fictional South American jungle town is different. “Map” also gets points for bringing “Wonderfalls” star Caroline Dhavernas back to our TV screens, which we welcome in concept. But in practice? Having seen the pilot, I can assure you that we’ve been there and done all that in a more pedestrian setting. That said, the popularity of “Grey’s ” and “Private Practice” proves that many enjoy the Shonda-land formula, so we won’t be surprised if “Map” ends up sticking to the wall for a while.
– More exciting, but about as equally unsurprising, were ABC Family’s pick-ups of a second season of “Pretty Little Liars” and a fourth season of “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.” “Secret Life” is cable’s top-rated show among 18-34 year old women, the demographic that represents ABC Family’s meal ticket, while “Pretty Little Liars” returned last week to a series high in the ratings, ranking it among the top five highest rated telecasts in the network’s history.
The “Pretty Little Liars” principal cast showed up to chat with critics, who rewarded them with as much of a love fest as a room full of curmudgeons could muster. In turn, we were treated to a glimpse of a pivotal scene in an upcoming episode which deepens the mystery. Producers also hinted that Troian Bellisario’s character Spencer will have a major arc to contend with during the last portion of this first season.
But the most memorable exchange of the morning came courtesy of Lucy Hale, answering the question of whether a boy kissing a girl on whom he has a crush while she’s unconscious is romantic or creepy. Without missing a beat, she answered, “Depends on the guy.”
Oh, those crazy millennials!
–Rounding out the day was the announcement that Disney Junior, currently Playhouse Disney, would officially launch on February 14. Disney Junior will begin as a block on Disney Channel before breaking off into a separate 24-hour basic cable channel in 2012.
–Disney Channel, meanwhile, has a new music-driven movie, “Lemonade Mouth,” premiering on March 25. Described by an executive as “The Breakfast Club” meets “The Commitments,” it’s the latest movie devised to drive kids wild (and parents nuts) from executive producer Debra Martin Chase, who gave us the “Cheetah Girls” franchise. Consider yourself warned.
TCA Tidbits: More on “Game of Thrones,” “Doctor Who,” and “Hell on Wheels”
Posted by Melanie McFarland in Commentary, TCA Winter Press Tour 2011, Tune In Info, TV News on July 28th, 2011
Although “Boardwalk Empire” proved to be a big noisemaker at the beginning of the 2010-2011 season, it is “Game of Thrones” – which roared into midseason on wave of critical acclaim and pop culture buzz – that is making viewers have faith in HBO once more.
HBO isn’t the only entity reaping rewards from “Thrones.” The show’s popularity has already made bestsellers (again) out of George R.R. Martin’s books, upon which the series is based. Martin’s latest entry, “A Dance with Dragons,” topped Amazon’s pre-sale list for weeks before its release. It is clear that “Thrones” will sell lots of DVDs and merchandise. HBO has made a good investment here.
But as anyone familiar with this industry knows, that’s precisely the reason one might fear for this show’s future…creatively speaking.
We’ll grant you, HBO’s programming executives behave differently from their counterparts at other networks — too differently, some would say. “Deadwood” fans are likely still ornery about that show’s premature death, brought about when its creator, David Milch, decided he wanted to move on to another show. Other networks might have turned “Deadwood” over to another showrunner who could have seen Milch’s vision through to a suitable finale. But HBO allowed Milch to drive the destiny of his creation’s fate.
Thus, we were subjected to the fail whale that was “John From Cincinnati,” and denied a suitable ending to the superior “Deadwood.”
HBO’s “Game of Thrones” conundrum is a bit different, in that Martin has given series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss loads of material to distill into hour-long episodes and short seasons, for a series that could run for many, many years. Not to mention that the story is still in progress. Thus, the fear becomes that the TV version of “Thrones” could become too unwieldy to sustain over the long haul…and HBO might not know when to put the brakes on it.
Naturally programming head Michael Lombardo does not share that fear. “The good news is, as long as (the producers) want to keep doing it, and as long as they’re achieving what they did this season in terms of being happy with the result, there’s a lot of storytelling to tell,” he told critics on Thursday afternoon “So I think it’s actually invigorating rather than daunting.”
One wonders if they’ll be saying that at this time next year.
Earlier with BBC America, Steven Moffat sought to calm down anyone who might still be freaking out over the “Let’s Kill Hitler” trailer the channel showed at Comic-Con…which, in case you haven’t seen it, includes a clip of Hitler thanking The Doctor (Matt Smith) for saving his life. This did not go over well with the sensitive Geek Nation. (Never mind that this is “Doctor Who” we’re talking about, which means that you can pretty much bet the bunker that Hitler’s still going to get what’s coming to him.)
So to set the record straight for anyone still fuming over it: “I think we can unequivocally and controversially say that we were against Hitler,” Moffat deadpanned. “I think he was a bad thing, and I’m glad he’s gone.” He went on to add, “Don’t worry. We’re not really going to save Hitler. He is, by the way, dead already. So we can’t.”
Alright, so what actually happens in “Let’s Kill Hitler”? We can’t say, although BBC America did give critics a look at the opening moments of the episode, which at least clued us in on how The Doctor and Amy found themselves in such a dicey situation. I could tell you but…spoilers!
New episodes of “Doctor Who” kick off on BBC America on Aug. 27, and in addition to this turn of events, Karen Gillan assured us that “it’s going to take some twists and turns. And all relationships and the whole dynamic is going to change” after the big revelation that struck us when we last saw The Doctor, Amy…and River Song, who becomes more enigmatic with every additional appearance. “Each time you think you know the truth about River, you don’t know it yet,” Moffat said. “And there’s loads more to come.
Earlier on Thursday, AMC set a premiere date for “Hell on Wheels,” the upcoming drama that tells story of the the transcontinental railroad’s construction. The drama’s 10 episode run begins on November 6 at 10pm.
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