Jul 03 2009
Celebrate with a look back at footage from ABC News coverage of July 4, 1976, festivities:
Jul 03 2009
Fans of ABC's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," take note: The network is reviving the game show for a prime-time run in August and beginning Monday you can audition for a chance to be on the program via telephone. Here's the release:
"WHO WANTS TO BE
A MILLIONAIRE" ANNOUNCES HOW TO
QUALIFY TO BE A CONTESTANT ON THE 10TH
ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Phone Game
Returns July 6-16th; Video Submissions Being Accepted Now
at www.abc.com
Who
wants to be a contestant on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" Here's how to
apply for the highly-anticipated 10th anniversary edition hosted by
Regis Philbin and running for 11 nights in August, Sundays-Thursdays at (8:00-9:00
p.m., ET) from August 9 to August 23 on the ABC Television Network.
There are multiple ways (see
below) to become a contestant on "Millionaire," including the original phone
game that was used when the show premiered in 1999 and video submissions - an
all-new method that will enable people to upload videos of themselves directly
to the show's producers. Would-be contestants can
use more than one method to try to get on the show but will only be
selected one time. No former "Hot Seat" players are eligible, and you must be
at least 18 years old, a legal U.S. resident and meet all eligibility
requirements.
THE PHONE
GAME
1-800-999-7878
Phone lines are open for 10 contest days from 7 p.m. ET
to 3 a.m. ET, starting at 7 p.m. on July 6th and ending at 3 a.m. ET
on July 16th. Call the 800 number and attempt to answer general knowledge
questions by putting the 4 answer choices in correct order. People who correctly answer all 5 questions
will select one of the 6 available tape dates.
A random drawing will be held from among all the people who selected the
same tape date to receive an eligibility call to qualify to become a finalist
on the program. If a person meets all eligibility requirements they will be
flown to New York City with a companion for the opportunity for the chance to
play in the hot seat.
Call Limit: One
call per person per contest day.
Alternate Entry
for Phone Game
A computer game has been established for persons who
have physical disability that prevents them from using a telephone to
participate in the Phone Game. Go to www.abc.com
keyword Millionaire for details.
VIDEO
SUBMISSIONS
Effective immediately, up until 3 a.m. ET on July 16,
people can submit a 2-minute video explaining why they would make a good
contestant and what they would do with the $1 million. The Producer will select
people from among all videos submitted to advance to an online test, which is
held July 17. Producer will select from among those who received a passing
score on the online test to receive an Eligibility Call to qualify to become a
finalist on the program. If a person meets all eligibility requirements they
will be flown to New York City with a companion for the opportunity for the
chance to play in the hot seat. People can go to www.abc.com
keyword Millionaire to submit videos.
REGIONAL
AUDITIONS
"Millionaire" producers hit the road during
the month of June to conduct contestant auditions in Nashville, Charlotte,
Indianapolis, Tampa and Kansas City, Missouri. Auditions will also be
held in Houston, Texas on Wednesday, July 1. No advance sign up is required for
road auditions but space is limited, people are seen on a first-come,
first-served basis and not all people may be seen. For audition information, go
to www.abc.com keyword Millionaire or www.millionairetv.com.
"Who
Wants To Be A Millionaire" is produced by Valleycrest Productions Ltd. Michael
Davies is executive producer.
Jul 02 2009
As Pittsburgh prepares to be in prime-time again with the locally-set CBS series "Three Rivers," we continue our conversation with creator/executive producer Carol Barbee. Earlier this month we talked about why Pittsburgh was selected as a setting. This week, we get into some of the local flavor that made its way into the pilot episode, which somehow managed to received an award before it even premieres (which sort of ruins the award's
credibility in my eyes).
Note: As we've also reported, that pilot episode may not air first. It may not ever air. Networks are loathe to say they're scrapping a pilot, lest their shows get tainted with the moniker of "troubled," but it seems likely that some of the scenes shot for the "Three Rivers" pilot will either be re-shot, inserted in a future episode or scrapped.
Barbee did medical research for "Three Rivers" at The Cleveland Clinic (hold your hissing, Cleveland bashers) before traveling to Pittsburgh to walk our streeets and get a sense of the city and to figure out where her characters would live.
"It's a really cool city and not so huge that you feel overwhelmed," she said. "It feels homey."
She imagines her lead character, Dr. Andy Yablonski (Alex O'Loughlin) lives on Mt. Washington, where he grew up.
Pittsburgh's famous Primanti Bros. gets a shoutout in the "Three Rivers" pilot. Barbee discovered in researching the world of transplant doctors that they're always concerned with what food is brought along for plane flights when teams go to collect organs for transplant. In the script, Barbee has one doctor order the new transplant coordinator to get him a sandwich from Primanti's.
"I went online and when I looked for famous food from Pittsburgh, Primanti's came up a thousand times," Barbee said. On her visit to Pittsburgh to shoot the pilot, Barbee made a pilgrimage to Primanti's with other members of the production crew. "I bought everybody a T-shirt that says 'Primanti Bros.' and 'Bite Me.'"
Barbee's one regret was that she didn't get more Pittsburgh paraphenalia on the set of the pilot.
"We were getting ready to shoot at a nurses's station and one of the guys on the crew -- most of them were from Pittsburgh -- said it should be filled with Pirates and Steelers memorabilia," Barbee said.
Although the series will be shot in Hollywood, Barbee said the intention is to return to Pittsburgh to film exterior scenes that will be inserted in episodes.
"The hope and plan is for us to go to Pittsburgh once or twice a year and save up scenes from different episodes and shoot scenes that show we're in Pittsburgh," Barbee said. "I really want to get those rivers and bridges in there. I really want to do a big funnicular scene. We have to use that."
Another question Pittsburgh viewers frequently ask: Why do shows set in Pittsburgh never seem to feature any Pittsburghese? In the past, producers have told me they're afraid the Yinzer accent would baffle viewers in the rest of the country. Barbee said a scene was shot for the "Three Rivers" pilot using a local actor that got cut.
"There's a scene where Andy is paged to come to the ER and there's a guy from the neighborhood -- Eddie, a working-class guy -- who got in a bar fight and figured if he asked fro Andy he'd get seen sooner," Barbee recalled. "It was a wonderful scene that gave a sense of Andy's connection to Pittsburgh and this one neighborhood. We cast a guy from Pittsburgh and he did the whole Yinzer accent and he was hilarious, doing the whole Yinzer thing. But once we got into editing we found it slowed the pilot down."
Barbee hopes to use the scene in a future episode or re-shoot it, possibly with the same Pittsburgh actor.
***
Part three of my chat with Barbee will appear here in Tuned In Journal next week.
Jul 01 2009
In this week's Tuned In podcast, A&E Web editor Sharon Eberson and I discuss TV coverage of the deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Billy Mays. Listen or subscribe at post-gazette.com/podcast.
***
Allow me a moment to be self-serving: The Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales writes in support of a dying breed: The TV critic. As Shales notes:
Sadly, there are people abroad and afoot in the land who maintain that TV critics are anachronisms, unnecessary luxuries in a fidgety digital age. At many major and minor newspapers around the country, the job has simply and callously been abolished. Imagine, critics turned out into the cold with no marketable skills other than complaining.
The irony is (and there has to be an irony), a critic's informed guidance is arguably needed now more than ever - what with the 500-channel ("and nothin' on") universe having taken over, and considering the fact that Old Man Webber - you know, the Internut - has exponentially multiplied viewing choices for global villagers.
What's a viewer to do? Consult a critic, for one thing.
Jul 01 2009
The news over the weekend that Billy Mays died at 50 from heart disease got me to thinking more about his role in the entertainment universe than I ever had before. Although he was a McKees Rocks native, I wasn't aware of him until late last year, in part because I rarely see commercials on TV anymore. And I'm not alone.
With DVRs in more than 30 percent of homes nationwide, we've become a nation of fast-forwarders. Viewers simply are not watching 30-second commercials in as large numbers.
I hadn't seen Mays much and never had reason to see bio information on him until Discovery Channel premiered "Pitchmen" earlier this year. Discovery Channel will air a marathon of previously-scheduled "Pitchmen" episodes today from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. in tribute to Mays. The show's first-season finale will air at 10 tonight. No decision has been made about the show's future, but Mays will live on in commercials, even if some are taking a brief break while Mays is mourned.
Clearly Mays had a following but I bet many of his fans were not using DVRs. As more homes gain DVRs, what will become of TV pitchmen? Will it turn out that Mays was one of the last of his kind? If so, what does that mean for our culture, if anything?
DVR users who no longer avail themselves of 30-second spots have seemingly tired of the form. And yet... there's something comforting to know commercials are there even if I'm not watching them. I've never been a fan of Mays' direct-response-style advertising ("Operators are standing by now!") but even so, it's a longtime part of American TV culture. And, as with so many other aspects of the media, these pitchmen are starting to look like dinosaurs.
Do you use a DVR? Do you watch commercials anymore voluntarily? Sign in (or register to sign in) and post your thoughts on the future of TV pitchmen below.
Jun 30 2009
Today's POPi blog links to two TV-related news items:
-- Pittsburgh native Jeff Goldblum ("Law & Order: Criminal Intent") went on "The Colbert Report" to discuss his supposed death, as reported in the New Zealand press last week.
-- G4's "Attack of the Show," which previously spoofed Pittsburgh native Billy Mays, now pays tribute to the late pitchman.
Jun 30 2009
Normal
0
PBS's "NOVA Science Now," hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson,
returns tonight at 8 on WQED with multiple stories, including a profile of
Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor Luis von Ahn, the 30-year-old mind behind those
words you type in when registering on Web sites so the computer can verify
you're a human and not a computer spambot.
Von Ahn has been profiled plenty of times before, including
in the Post-Gazette, but "NOVA Science Now" does a nice job of getting
behind the creation to show us what makes the creator tick. He's a fan of TV
("Dexter," "Heroes," "Fringe" and "Weeds") and video games, but he also likes
to pace and come up with ideas, "the vast majority are completely idiotic," but
at least he's thinking, something too many of us have precious little time to
do anymore.
***
Sharon Eberson has welcome news in the POPi blog for "Star Wars" fans who have been awaiting word on George Lucas' upcoming live-action "Star Wars" TV series.
Jun 29 2009
The pilot episode of an unsold series called "Rex" is making the rounds on Facebook, including a trailer and a link to the full pilot. (Password for full pilot is whippedbutter and should be typed in the box to the left of "submit.")
Rex is a pilot for a proposed series starring Simon Rex (MTV, "Jack & Jill") as a fictional version of himself. It was written by a writer from Lifetime's "Lovespring International" and features Paris Hilton and Jaime Pressly as versions of themselves.
In "Rex," Rex plays a washed up star trying to get back on track. His father (Victor Garber) still frets over the video Rex made up himself masturbating (this really happened). Rex decides he needs a new controversy to get back in the public eye so he re-hires his original "controversy consultant" (this is fiction) to garner attention.
The plan: Dinner with Lance Bass, who is gay. Rex, who is straight, hits on Bass, claiming, "I just became gay yesterday." It's pretty hilarious, actually, far more entertaining than anything Rex has made in the past.
Of local note, "Rex" also features a scene of an agent talking about former Carnegie Mellon University student Aron Ralston, identified as a "celebrity mountain climber," who cut off his own arm to survive.
"He never fell down the mountain," the agent claims. "He went up the mountain and cut off his own arm to get the controversy going, to get on Letterman, to get the endorsement deals."
Whether or not the online attention gets "Rex" picked up by any networks, we'll see. But it's a pretty entertaining half-hour for fans of pop culture and celebrity entertainment.
Jun 26 2009
Fox's "Virtuality," from the writers of "Battlestar
Galactica," airs tonight at 8 as a one-time movie, although what viewers will see is
actually a pilot for a proposed TV series that now seems unlikely to be
produced. But it has enough interesting ideas - and executive producer Ron
Moore has enough of a following - that it deserves more attention than the
average failed pilot.
On virtual reality: In "Virtuality," astronauts
embark on a journey to find an inhabitable planet and along the way they pass
the time in VR environments. To connote VR, Moore said scenes set in VR
were shot on green screen for later insertion of computer-generated
backgrounds.
"We kept that [visual] language for all the virtual pieces
to sort of give all of the virtual reality a sense of continuity so that you
always intuitively felt that you were in a virtual world," Moore said.
Some viewers may
compare it to the holodeck on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," but the
"Virtuality" astronauts enter the space only in their minds while wearing VR
goggles. Also, if they die in the VR world, they don't die in the real world;
it's more like playing a contemporary video game.
It's a similar conceit to the VR world in Moore's upcoming
"Battlestar" prequel, "Caprica," whose pilot episode is already out on DVD.
"In ‘Caprica' it's really much more akin to the Internet
where you go out and the virtual spaces are practically infinite and they
intersect with one another," Moore said. "In ‘Virtuality,' we're looking at
something much more discrete, much more of a gaming type of environment where
an astronaut has a specific virtual reality module that they go into and play
whatever game or whatever experience they want but there is no expectation that
you can cross for one module to another."
On the reality show component: In addition to a
scientific mission, the Phaeton crew in "Virtuality" is also filmed for a
reality show that's airing on Earth (on Fox, of course).
"There was a conscious attempt on the part of the people who
put the crew together to sort of have an interesting mix of people," Moore
said. "There are debates within the crew themselves about who was chosen for
just sort of their demographic content and who was legitimately supposed to be
there."
On the show's tone: "There's more humor probably in
the first 10 minutes of ‘Virtuality' than there was in the run of ‘Battlestar,'
let's put it that way," Moore said.
On the show's development: Moore said studio
executives initially pitched him on the idea of a show about a long-range space
mission to Mars.
"I was interested in the idea of what do you do with 12
people in a metal tube for that long," he said.
Executives had a meeting with writer Michael Taylor and the
same topic came up. Eventually, Taylor and Moore began collaborating
The idea of something to keep astronauts from going crazy
during a long space trip emerged, hence the VR. After that, the reality show
concept grew out of the idea of the crew beaming reports back to Earth, which
created new possibilities for drama.
"Were the needs of the reality show starting to impact what
was happening on the spacecraft? Were people being manipulated in order to make
better drama for the reality show?" Moore said.
On "Edge of Never" webisodes: Segments from the
reality show seen on Earth turn up in the "Virtuality" pilot tonight but more
have been posted as Webisodes at the Edge of Never Facebook site.
On the future of the "Virtuality" property: Moore
acknowledged even if the TV show doesn't go forward, there's also been talk of
books or graphic novels continuing the story.
"I think all of those are possibilities," he said. "It's
just kind of one step at a time."
***
I know I promised part two of my interview with "Three Rivers" executive producer Carol Barbee this week but it got squeezed out. Look for it next week.
Jun 25 2009
A couple of notes on TV coverage of the death of Michael Jackson:
TMZ.com reported Jackson's passing at 6:04 p.m. (at least that's when I got the e-mail alert). Other outlets were still reporting he suffered a cardiac arrest. The L.A. Times death notice arrived at 6:26 p.m., just as I turned on the TV and Fox News was saying "cardiac arrest," although within a few minutes Fox was quoting the L.A. Times that Jackson had died. I'm not a fan of TMZ, but they got this one right. Not that it matters in the long run as far as Jackson fans are concerned but it is interesting to see how journalism evolves, particularly in the Internet age, and how the scoops migrate from one platform to another. (Eric Deggans notes how getting the scoop first can burnish a news brand.)
Wow, CNN is really late. Their confirmation of his death e-mail didn't hit my in box until 7:33 p.m.
MTV breaks into programming for news of Jackson's death, airing a cameo-filled Jackson video at 7 p.m. and a crawl with the news.
ETOnline promotes its "exclusive" last photo of Jackson prior to his death. Really, ET? Really?
Glad to see "CBS Evening News" report didn't gloss over the accusations of child molestation against Jackson. He was never convicted but so much of the cable news coverage has been starry-eyed fans wallowing in their grief (many congregating at a Walk of Fame star for a different Michael Jackson. Oops.). A little perspective is necessary.
Found link to live stream of coverage from CBS O&O in Los Angeles. (But, eww, is live coverage of Jackson's body being moved via helicopter really necessary? And we think out local affiliates are nuts...) Anchor Pat Harvey: "He's the kind of person who might have had plans for his afterlife already planned out." Wow, if Jackson is able to see those plans through, that would be something to top the Moonwalk.
And as Sharon Eberson notes in the POPi blog, contrary to some reports, Jeff Goldblum lives.
Jackson's death complicates the plans of networks that already had slated special programming tonight to mark the passing of Farrah Fawcett.
-- NBC just expanded a one-hour Fawcett retrospective to a two-hour special, starting at 9 p.m., that will commemorate both entertainers.
-- ABC will have a Jackson special at 9 p.m. before its Fawcett program.
-- CBS will air a Jackson retrospective tonight at 10.
-- TV One will air tribute at 8 p.m. Friday.
-- BIO will air a program on Jackson at 10 p.m. Saturday.
Here's a wonderful remembrance of Jackson. A great read.
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