I love this stuff. That, in five words or less, sums up why I consider myself beyond blessed to have spent virtually the whole of my adult life getting paid to write about television. True: At this very moment, things are glum in the land of make-believe and fairy dust. Business models that for decades...
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Sun, Apr 26 2009
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Filed under: Broadcast, John Landgraf, How I Met Your Mother, Chuck, Print Edition, Mike Darnell, Josh Schwartz, Nina Tassler, Medium, Lauren Zalaznick, Glenn Gordon Caron, Peter Roth, Carter Bays, Craig Thomas, Susan Zirinsky
CBS is giving “How I Met Your Mother” a big vote of confidence, ordering four additional scripts of the Monday night hit. The scripts are for the 2009-10 season, and the early order is designed to give producers a head start on planning the show’s fifth year. While technically not the same as an early...
Blockbuster comedies such as “Friends” and “Seinfeld” left prime time years ago, but Must-See TV is alive and well. It just moved to CBS. While many in the industry have been wringing their hands (and flapping their jaws) about the supposed death of the sitcom, the network that introduced Americans to...
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Mon, Mar 9 2009
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Filed under: Broadcast, CBS, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Print Edition, Chuck Lorre, Nina Tassler, Two and a Half Men, Gary Unmarried, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Starting with “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Nina Tassler and Wendi Trilling have been instrumental in CBS’s comedy comeback. The duo first began working together in 1997, when Ms. Tassler came to CBS with Leslie Moonves. Ms. Trilling was already at the network, having joined in 1990 as a staffer in the...
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Sun, Mar 8 2009
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Filed under: Broadcast, CBS, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Print Edition, Q&A, Chuck Lorre, Nina Tassler, Two and a Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond, Wendi Trilling
Is it over yet? Queen Elizabeth famously described 1992 as her “annus horribilis.” For the rest of us, including much of the TV industry, 2008 no doubt will merit a similar epitaph. The year began with the Writers Guild of America still on strike, and lots of bad reality shows filling in for much better...
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Fri, Dec 19 2008
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Filed under: Broadcast, Showtime, HBO, CBS, NBC, Pushing Daisies, How I Met Your Mother, Katie Couric, Print Edition, Heroes, Rachel Maddow, WGA, The Jay Leno Show, Stike, Reality TV
Now that the U.S. government has gotten into the bailout business in a big way, is it too much to ask that Congress next consider legislation to shore up the small screen’s sorry sitcom industry? OK, as the sentence above suggests, my joke-writing ability clearly poses no danger to Chuck Lorre, Tina...
It could have been a lot worse. That’s the bottom line from the first few days of the 2008-09 television season, which got under way last week amidst a higher-than-normal level of angst among network suits. With so many shows taking nine-month hiatuses due to the writers strike, and fewer newcomers than...
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Sun, Sep 28 2008
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Filed under: Fringe, Broadcast, Ratings, Grey's Anatomy, Dancing With the Stars, How I Met Your Mother, 90210, Print Edition, Heroes, Knight Rider, The Mentalist, Do Not Disturb, Worst Week, Boston Legal, Criminal Minds, Two and a Half Men
Jamila Hunter , NBC’s new senior vice president of programming and development, alternative and digital, said the biggest challenge facing creators and networks with reality series is “fatigue with the genre.” “Viewers have gotten so used to seeing three judges on a talent competition, or certain rhythms...
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Fri, Aug 1 2008
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Filed under: Broadcast, NBC, Bravo, How I Met Your Mother, Project Runway, LATV Festival, 20th Century Fox Television, Jamila Hunter, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, My Name Is Earl
If Emmy voters had a message for the broadcast networks this year, it was this: No more excuses. The breakthroughs by basic cable’s AMC and FX—along with strong showings by ad-supported networks such as TNT, USA, Bravo, Sci Fi and A&E—demonstrated that you can make a creative splash even...
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Thu, Jul 17 2008
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Filed under: Broadcast, Cable, FX, Emmys, ABC, HBO, CBS, Mad Men, AMC, How I Met Your Mother, Damages, Emmy, The Big Bang Theory