Jul 31 2009
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Just how big is the "Three Rivers" hospital set? So big they cut holes in the wall between Paramount stages 19 and 20 so production designer Philip Toolin could create long, winding, river-like corridors for the doctors to stride down during those all-important hospital show walk-and-talk shots.
The interior of Three Rivers Regional Medical Center is a far cry from the old-school Brownsville hospital where the show's pilot was filmed earlier this year. And it doesn't have the white gleam of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, which was also used as a hospital stand-in for some scenes.
Instead, the new hospital has deep colors: A maroon floor, warm green and yellow walls and huge TV monitors everywhere, including one featuring a map of Pittsburgh that resembles a weather radar. Hospital rooms are designed to resemble a luxury hotel in an effort to calm patients' nerves.
Because the new interior doesn't match the pilot -- and because of several roles being re-cast (Julia Ormond is out as Dr. Sophia Jordan; "St. Elsewhere" veteran Alfre Woodard is in) -- the pilot that was shot in Pittsburgh will not air as the first episode of the series. A new premiere episode is in production now. Some scenes and stories from the Pittsburgh pilot will air as a later episode, according to series creator/executive producer Carol Barbee.
Series stars Alex O'Loughlin ("Moonlight") and Katherine Moennig ("The L Word") will return to Pittsburgh Aug. 17 to film two scenes to insert in two upcoming episodes. A scene for the new first episode features O'Loughlin's Dr. Andy Yablonski playing rugby with some old neighborhood buddies in a park (rugby doesn't seem all that Pittsburgh-y, does it?); another scene for the show's fourth episode features Moennig's Dr. Miranda Foster and Yablonski having a conversation with Downtown Pittsburgh in the background. A flyover scene for the premiere -- shot from a helicopter -- will follow an ambulance as it enters the Ft. Pitt Tunnel from the Parkway West and then fly over Mt. Washington to see the ambulance emerge on the other side with the beauty shot of Pittsburgh's Downtown. (Information on filming locations is not available.)
Producers hope to make a second trip to shoot local scenes during the first 13 episodes; if a back nine episodes are ordered, cast members would ideally return for one additional filming trip in the show's first season.
Odd, clingy scrubs that resembled "Star Trek" uniforms in the Pittsburgh pilot have been discarded in favor of more normal-looking scrubs. "Thank God," Moennig said.
I'll have more on "Three Rivers" next week in the Post-Gazette.
Jul 31 2009
PASADENA, Calif. -- Light blogging today because I'm headed to the set of Pittsburgh-set medical drama "Three Rivers." I'll post news from there later today.
***
Interesting panel this morning on the upcoming WE series "Adoption Diaries" (10 p.m. Sept. 12), a series that chronicles open adoptions. Will likely write about it near the premiere date.
Jul 31 2009
PASADENA, Calif. -- TV One looks at turning points in the lives of celebrities with "Life After" (10 p.m. Sept. 13), including Omarosa ("The Apprentice"), Al Reynolds (the former Mr. Starr Jones) and Darryl "Chill" Mitchell (an actor in the upcoming Fox sitcom "Brothers" and formerly of "Ed").
They all say they participated because they trusted TV One to let them tell their own stories (so basically it was about controlling the spin).
Of course, Omarosa was the most interesting at the press conference, spinning gold.
Omarosa on her place in the entertainment firmament: "I have done 20+ reality shows. I enjoy doing it and clearly I'm good at it because I've been at the top of reality for the last six years."
Omarosa on the impact of reality TV in her life: "I got divorced after 'The Apprentice' and I really didn't like him before 'The Apprentice' so I can't really blame it on reality TV."
Omarosa on reality TV as an income source: "I was working in the White House for $56,000, 18-hour days, didn't see my family. I can come to L.A., do a reality show for $100,000, shoot it in 12 days. ... For 'The Surreal Life' I made $75,000 for eight or nine days of taping. ... I love the government but, seriously, reality TV is so much more economically satisfying."
Omarosa on her reality TV appearances: "When I'm shooting a show, whether it's a scene between me and psycho Janice Dickinson, whatever I'm feeling is authentic. I'm not thinking about ratings, it's whatever I'm feeling in that moment.
I've crossed the line in every situation and I own up to that and take responsibility for things I've done."
Omarosa on who's to blame for the success of reality TV: "If
28 million people tune in to 'The Apprentice,' is it me or is the problem the 28 million people who have an appetite for that kind of drama?"
Omarosa on who she apologizes to: "I apologize for calling Janice Dickinson a crackhead, for saying she was cuckoo and the oldest supermodel, and that she has jowls and a bad hair weave and is a terribe mother. I apologize to Piers Morgan for saying he's a British idiot and I apologize to Wendy Williams for calling her a man. I meant that from my heart. I'm evolving."
Jul 30 2009
PASADENA, Calif. -- Robin Williams will do an HBO standup special, "Weapons of Self-Destruction" (Dec. 6), and he took to the stage saying, "Nice to be on the same bill with 'Hung.'"
He said he's returning to stand-up because "I ran out of merchandising money from 'Bicentennial Man,'" which was a movie flop.
***
At a session for HBO's upcoming comedy "Bored to Death" (Sept. 20), star Ted Danson humorously explained to young co-stars Jason Schwartzman and Zach Galifianakis that he was once on a show called "Cheers."
"You tell me every five minutes," Galifianakis said. "If it isn't 'Cheers,' it's [bleeping] 'Becker.'"
For his part, Galifianakis, riding a career high from his role in "The Hangover," said he's still doing stand-up, but at first he joked he was too busy, saying, "I'm gonna really miss the Uncle Chuckles in Tampa."
Schwartzman, appearing via satellite, pretended at the end of the press conference that he didn't think critics could hear him anymore, saying, "Am I off with these [expletive deleted]?"
Jul 30 2009
PASADENA, Calif. -- One reporter asked why in HBO's "Hung," about a well-endowed, middle-aged sad sack-turned-gigolo (Thomas Jane), viewers never see Ray's, ahem, manhood.
"It's just so big and beautiful, it would blow your mind," said actress Jane Adams, who plays Ray's pimp.
"We think of it as Plato's penis on a certain level," said creator Colette Burson, explaining that to show it would ruin the mystique because it might be too big for some viewers, too small for others. "We sort of think it's perfect for everybody who comes in contact with it."
Burson said some actors auditioning to play Ray would come into the room and sit down with their legs spread wide.
"It was definitely a little freaky," she said of how some actors approached the part.
Someone asked a good non-manhood question about the casting of Ray's kids, who look nothing like Ray or their mother (Anne Heche).
"Why does everybody pick on the kids?" Burson said. "First of all, I think they are beautiful. ... We wanted kids that were real to us."
But the question isn't about their looks on a general level, it's about how they look in relation to their parents. I like that the kids are real, I just don't buy them as the children of Jane and Heche. Jane defended the casting, saying something about finding cast members who align "spiritually," which is a bunch of baloney from where most viewers sit.
And then we returned to double entendres about how the show might give Jane a "bigger career" or "extend" his career as Adams noted a reporter was asking his question into a microphone, which by its nature, is phallic-shaped.
Jul 30 2009
PASADENA, Calif. -- HBO, which is largely recovered from a year or two in the wilderness, has renewed its three summer series -- "True Blood," "Entourage" and "Hung" -- for new seasons to return next year.
Regarding other series:
No decision has been made about bringing back "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency." "We're in coversations right now trying to figure out the next step on that show," said HBO programming president Michael Lombardo.
Never believe an actor about a show's renewal: In January, "Little Britain USA" star Matt Lucas said the show would return to HBO. But network executives said it won't be back, however the creators are developing some specials with all-new characters that will air late next year or early in 2011.
The miniseries "The Pacific," which tells a story of World War II in the Pacific theater from the same producers who made "Band of Brothers," is slated to air in March. "Treme," a New Orleans-set drama from David Simon, creator of "The Wire," will premiere in April.
HBO executives are waiting on delivery of the pilot of Martin Scorsese's "Boardwalk Empire," a period drama set in Atlantic City, before ordering a full first season, but they said they're excited and optimistic that it will come to fruition as a series. "We're set to get going in September," Lombardo said.
Executives are ready to order a third season of "Flight of the Conchords," but they're waiting on the show's stars/creators, who are working on a new album, to say they want to return to production on the TV show. "I'm sure that will happen," Lombardo said.
"Big Love" will return for a new season in January.
"In Treatment" was based on an Israeli series that only ran for two seasons so to make a third season would require creating stories from whole cloth. "We're trying to put it together," said HBO co-president Richard Plepler.
Animated show "The Life and Times of Tim" will return for a new season, but it hasn't been scheduled yet.
Podcasts created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and featuring Karl Pilkington will be animated for an upcoming HBO series. Some new material will also be recorded.
"Epitafios," a terrific Spanish-language thriller filmed in Argentina, returns for a second season on HBO2 on Sept. 22 (11 p.m.).
Jul 30 2009
Here's HBO's first publicity photo from the new season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," which returns for a new season at 9 p.m. Sept. 20. UPDATE: Details below the pic.
On "Curb," Faux Larry David will get the "Seinfeld" cast together to stage a reunion show, something Real Larry David, a "Seinfeld" executive producer, has always said he won't do.
"I've been asked about a 'Seinfeld' reunion as has Jerry and other cast members and one day I realized that I would always say no, I'll never do it, that's a lame idea," David said. "And then I thought, but it might be very funny to do that on 'Curb.'"
Viewers will see the writing of the "Seinfeld" reunion script, a table read, rehearsal, filming and pieces of the finished program, but not all of it.
Jerry Seinfeld will appear in five "Curb" episodes; other cast members will be in four. The "Curb" season finale, which includes the finished "Seinfeld" reunion, could run up to an hour.
More on the new season in Saturday's Tuned In column.
Jul 30 2009
PASADENA, Calif. -- At the start of TLC's press tour panel, network president Eileen O'Neill made a brief statement about the return of "Jon & Kate Plus 8" on Monday, saying "We will continue to capture this family's journey in a respectful and sensitive
way."
She also says Jon and Kate Goesslin, who have filed for divorce, will no longer be interviewed sharing a couch. In the new episodes they'll each get their own chair.
O'Neill wouldn't take questions, moving on to other panels, but I'll try to follow-up after the session for Saturday's print column.
Jul 30 2009
PASADENA, Calif. -- Because we know reality shows can heal (I kid), the fractured Lorenzo Lamas clan will air their dirty laundry in "The Lamas Life," an upcoming, yet-to-be scheduled E! series.
Lorenzo, formerly of "Falcon Crest" and "Renegade," has been married four times, and according to tabloid reports, ex-wife Shauna Sand slept with Lamas' then 18-year-old son, A.J., in 2002, prior to Lorenzo and Shauna divorcing. (A.J. was Sand's step-son.)
Lorenzo described his current relationship with A.J. as "strained." Before they started working on this reality show they hadn't spoken in several years. He said he agreed to do this show "because there's a chance we can make things better through the circumstances of a television show. ... I've seen A.J. more in the last two weeks than I have in the past three years."
Executive producer Mike Fleiss ("The Bachelor") jumped in to say, "There's only one way to get a family back together and that's on television."
If you're rolling your eyes -- as I am -- know that A.J. shared our skepticism. Then he got over it.
"I felt the same way, man," A.J. said. "I'm like, a [bleeping] TV show to bring us back together? But you know what, honestly, if it takes a TV show for me and this guy to come back together, then so be it."
A.J.'s sister, Shayne, a contestant on "The Bachelor" who blames appearing on that show with stalling her acting career (and yet she's doing another reality show), defended trying to repair the family strife on TV.
"We were already pretty apart," she said. "So the only way you can go is back together."
Jul 30 2009
PASADENA, Calif. -- Style Network's "Giuliana & Bill" (9 p.m. Wednesday) follows the E! news anchor Giuliana Rancic and husband Bill, a winner of "The Apprentice," as they navigate their marriage while living in different cities. She's in Los Angeles, he's in Chicago. They haven't figured out how long they're going to continue the commuter marriage ("That's season two," Bill said); he hates L.A., she won't give up her career to live in Chicago.
The couple said they have no fear of going down the path muddied by the Jon & Kates and "Newlyweds" (Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey) of the world, whose marriages have cracked up for all the world to see.
Normal
0
What have they learned?
"I'm the most annoying person," Giuliana said, noting that watching the show has revealed she often cuts off her husband mid-sentence. "If we didn't have this show, I'd never know how annoying I was."
Another discovery: "It's weird how I walk. I walk like a guy."
More Posts
Next page »