MOONLIGHT Names Johannessen as Showrunner

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chip Johannessen has been named the new executive producer/showrunner of the upcoming CBS drama MOONLIGHT. Johannessen, whose credits include “Dark Angel”, “Empire” and “Millennium” was brought on board after original showrunner David Greenwalt left the production citing personal and health reasons.

MOONLIGHT, starring Alex O’Loughlin, is in the process of reshooting its pilot with new actors and a certain level of reinvention. I’m keeping my eye on this one for the Fall season.

What to Watch…Thursday, August 2, 2007

So You Think You Can Dance
OneRepublic is the special guest as Mary Murphy and Nigel Lithgow cut the field from eight dancers to six.

Burn Notice
Michael is hired to take a boat from Jamaican gangsters and discovers $10 million stashed onboard. Elsewhere, a CSS agent tries to make Michael back off his investigation into the burn notice.

Big Brother
Tonight we are going to say goodbye to either Kail and Nick. I haven’t been watching the feeds but my gut is telling me that that it’s going to be Nick’s night to go. Remind me again why they can’t get Jen out of that house already?

Shark Tribe
Shark Week continues with this special on New Guinea tribesmen who can call sharks and catch them by hand from canoes.

Mad Men
Turn the dial back to early-60s Madison Avenue and join ad-man Pete as he comes back from his honeymoon worried about what he did at the bachelor party.

Talk Show Round Up…

The Late Show with David Letterman
Al Franken, Jackie Chan, Michael Buble

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Claire Danes, Bob Saget, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

Jimmy Kimmel Live
Adam Brody, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Sean Kingston

Late Night with Conan O’Brien
Anne Hathaway, Simon Pegg, Mavis Staples

Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
Julie Delpy, Alfred Molina, Emerson Drive

Last Call with Carson Daly
Marisa Miller, Marie Digby

The Daily Show
Jed Babbin

The Colbert Report
Michael Beschloss

The Bench Dance – SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE

My apologies to all you non-SYTYCD fans out there. I’ve completely bombarded you today with all these posts about a show that some of you might not even be watching. But I just checked my email and I got a ton of mail from GMMR readers asking where they can watch the “Bench” dance from Season 2 that was mentioned during last night’s show. Since I had it, I wanted to post it. This will be my last SYTYCD post (well, at least until tomorrow).

The Bench Dance (as it will forever be known) choreographed by Mia Michaels and performed by Travis Wall and Cousin Heidi.

…and here it is as performed on the SYTYCD live tour.

Neil & Lacey’s Contemporary Routine by Mia Michaels

I don’t care if you are a fan of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE or not, you should take a few minutes to check out this beautiful routine from last night’s episode. Partners Neil Haskell & Lacey Schwimmer were breathtaking in this gorgeous routine by choreographer Mia Michaels.

The video sadly doesn’t include the pre-performance footage during which Mia explains that she wrote this dance to tell the story of her one day reunion with her father that just recently passed. It’s so beautifully designed and performed.

Neil and Lacey dance Contemporary

If anyone comes across the full video with the pre-performance footage and/or the judges comments, please let me know.

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE Recap: Top 8 Performers

So it’s about 1:15AM here on the East Coast and I was just about to go to bed when it hit me…I didn’t watch SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. I was out with my friends and completely forgot it was on! Who am I?! Being the dedicated blogger that I am, I’m going to not only watch it tonight, but post a recap before I let my head hit the pillow.

So let’s get to it!

Adam Shankman….He’s Back!! The director of HAIRSPRAY is back to share his enthusiasm with all the dancers. He’s a bit talkative so it could be a long night. Tonight each of the couples are performing two routines. I’d remind you that you should be voting for your favorite individual dancer, but it’s so late that the phone lines are already closed.

Danny Tidwell and Sara Von Gillern
1st Routine: Argentine Tango by Alex DaSilva
Seriously, there is no denying Danny Tidwell’s talent. Pair him with Sara and they are sex on stage. I didn’t love this Argentine Tango as much as others we have seen in the past, but it was still enjoyable. I would have liked to see it move a little faster, but some of the kicks were incredible, and the human pretzel move…just wow. It didn’t blow me away, but I still really liked it. Adam Shankman loved the BLEEP out of it. Mary and Nigel weren’t completely blown away but they both loved it and thought it was fantastic. And Nigel thought Danny’s pirouettes were ridiculous (in a good way).

Danny and Sara Argentine Tango

2nd Routine: Hip-Hop by Shane Sparks
We had some old school hip hop tonight with some really fun choreography. I know this might come as a shock to some, but I think I’m starting to love like Danny (I don’t want to go too crazy now). Over the past few weeks he seems to be having more fun and taking himself a bit less seriously. He looked like he was having a blast with tonight’s choreography and he more than held his own considering this is about as far away from ballet as you can get. Sara was fantastic (I think, I was drawn to Danny), but this is her style so let’s just assume that she was. No clue what the judges are going to say. Adam was more concerned with the wardrobe with the dancing, but he thought it was ok. Mary thought it was too cute and not good enough. Nigel thought they went for it but didn’t achieve it together. Overall, not the love they were hoping for. (click here to watch)

Lauren Gottlieb and Dominic Sandoval
1st Routine: Krump by Lil C
It’s hard for me to judge this routine because I don’t know enough about Krumping to even begin to tell if it was good or not. Overall I thought Dominic was sharper than Lauren, and more than a few times she fell slightly behind him in the choreography. There was very little partner work in this routine so it seemed like two strangers sharing a stage. There were a few lifts at the end, but nothing overly impressive. Again, it wasn’t bad but this isn’t one I would post again on YouTube tomorrow. And as for the judges, Adam didn’t think the dance did much for them as individual dancers but he thought they did well with what they’ve given. Mary thought it dragged in the second half. The dance didn’t really do much for Nigel, but he seemed to have more of an issue with the music than the performance. Oh and Nigel called out Lauren on falling during the number, but he gave her props for recovering well. (click here to watch)

2nd Routine: Rumba
I don’t care what the judges have to say about this dance, as a viewer I LOVED it. Lauren was sexy as all get out, and Dom pulled back on the bravado tonight and was just hot for his woman. I was loving this dance from the very first lift to the making out at the end of the dance. Oh yes, they were smooching on TV…hot! Ha ha ha Mia Michaels and Alex DaSilva were just fake making out in the audience…too funny. Not overwhelming praise from the judges. All seemed to think that there wasn’t enough rumba in the rumba. But isn’t that the fault of the choreographer? Nigel thought that perhaps the choreographers were altering the routines to bring out the best in the dancers, and he threw down the challenge for next week that they design dances to the best of their ability, and force the dancers to dance up to the level they need to. Bring it.

Dominic and Lauren dance Rumba

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BIG BROTHER Recap: Power of Veto

No time for an in-depth BIG BROTHER recap today, but I thought we could cover the basics and then bitch about the houseguests in the comments…sound good?

Nominations…
Dustin is HOH and put up Jen and Kail for eviction, which won him the love of the rest of the house (well except for Jen and Kail).  Dustin told Kail that she was a pawn and that the house was voting for Jen to go.  In the event that Jen won the Power of Veto, it would be Zach going up in her place and going home.  Kail said she was putting her trust in Dustin.  Dustin told the Diary Room that Kail shouldn’t trust him.

Power of Veto Competition…

Playing for this week’s POV  are the two nominated houseguests (Jen & Kail), the HOH (Dustin) and randomly chosen houseguests Jameka and Jessica.   Jameka figured that since it was Jen that pulled her name to play for the POV then it was God’s will that she play for Jen, and she’s not going to get in the way of God’s will.  Jameka gave Jen her word that if she won the POV she would take Jen off the block.  I have to respect Jameka’s way of playing the game but at the same time I can’t help but wonder WTF?! Dick, the atheist, thinks that if there is a God then he might have a few more important things to do then care about Big Brother. Yeah, like finding me a rich husband!!

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Whoopi Goldberg New Co-Host of THE VIEW

If I had a dime for every time Barbara Walters announced a new co-host of THE VIEW, I’d be lounging on the beaches of St. Tropez (still writing GMMR).

Today it was announced that Academy Award Winner Whoopi Goldberg will be the new co-host moderator of THE VIEW. Barbara announced the news this morning on the show.

“I have known Whoopi for years,” Walters said. “She is brilliant, funny and irrepressible, and is an enormously popular and talented star. We are delighted that she is going to join the program as our moderator.”

Rumors are swirling that Sherri Shepherd will be named as yet another co-host this week, but that announcement has not been made official yet.

MOONLIGHT Pics from Comic-Con

Last week I told you all about the Comic-Con panel for CBS’s new show MOONLIGHT.  As I’ve said before, I wasn’t sure this one was going to be on my radar, and then they went and cast Jason Dohring which earned it a solid season pass on my TiVo.  But Jason Dohring aside, I think this is going to be a smart and sexy show and one that I think we’ll be talking a lot about on GiveMeMyRemote.com this season. (Check out my thoughts on the MOONLIGHT panel here)

Here are a few more pics from the MOONLIGHT Comic-Con panel.  From where I was sitting I had the best vantage point of MOONLIGHT stars Alex O’Loughlin and Jason Dohring so that’s why I seem to have more pics of them than anyone else…yeah, that’s the reason. (And why I am posting that hideous picture of me with Alex O’Loughlin I’ll never know, but doesn’t he kind of look like Rodrigo Santoro in that pic?)

            

REALTED POSTS:

• MOONLIGHT Over Dohring (Comic-Con Update)
• MOONLIGHT: Interview with a Vampire
• MOONLIGHT’s Alex O’Loughlin Looks Like…

Kevin Smith to Write/Direct HEROES:ORIGINS

Straight from Comic-Con comes the news that Kevin Smith will be writing and directing an episode of the series-within-a-series, HEROES:ORIGINS. As you can see in this clip below, the new was so fresh that the cast of HEROES had no idea until Kevin was brought out on stage.

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I happen to be a major Kevin Smith fan so this is all good news to me. Although, if we are being honest, a good guest director is at his best when he delivers a show that the fans want. So don’t expect to be seeing Affleck flying around with Peter Petrelli and Jay and Silent Bob hit on Ali Larter (they already did that – it’s called “Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back”).  But then again, Smith will be writing it, so expect the network censors to be in full effect.

Kevin Smith has also directed the pilot episode for the new CW show, REAPER. The episode was shown during Comic-Con and was hosted by Mr. Smith himself. I’ll be back at some point with all the details of the Kevin Smith/REAPER panel.

What to Watch…Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Hey GMMRers…hope you are enjoying your summer.  It looks to be beautiful in Boston, but I can’t say that I’ve left my house in the past few days so I can’t say for sure.  I’m on the tailend of a pain in the ass cold that has kept me couped up on cold medicine since returning from the left coast.  But I’m on my way out of it, and should have plenty of time to devote to posting the rest of my Comic-Con update.

I don’t normally point out specific guests on the late night circuit, but then again very rarely does a BATTLESTAR GALACTICA cast member get invited to these shows.  So tonight, check out Jimmy Kimmel Live and see guest Katee Sackhoff.  Granted she’s probably there to talk about her new show BIONIC WOMAN, but it’s all good.

Tonight marks the return of THE NINE to ABC. Despite being one of the most talked about pilots of last season, THE NINE never found the audience it needed from week to week and the show was pulled from the schedule leaving fans with many unanswered questions. As promised ABC is airing the final six unaired episodes in its previous time slot of Wednesday at 10pm EST. But be warned, from what I’ve been told, the whole story of what happened that fateful day in the bank was not going to be revealed in the first season. So if you are expecting the answers to the mystery of THE NINE in the next six episode, be prepared to be disappointed…again.

So You Think You Can Dance
As we reach the performance show for the final 8 dancers, Lacey Schwimmer has begun to look like the most likely winner. It’s an all-reality night for picks, too!

Last Comic Standing
The 10 finalists compete in a real-life challenge: facing down a heckler.

Rescue Me
A devastating fire has a profound effect on the crew; Tommy wrestles with his feelings about the baby; Alicia (Susan Sarandon) returns with a proposition for Franco; Troy breaks up with Sheila while Lou makes a tough decision about Theresa.

Top Chef
Guest judge Rocco DiSpirito first challenges the chefs to identify foods while blindfolded. Then, they have to work with frozen ingredients.

Talk Show Round Up…

The Late Show with David Letterman
Matt Damon, Jeff Altman, Angelique Kidjo

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Heidi Klum, Anderson Cooper, Brad Paisley

Jimmy Kimmel Live
Marc Anthony, Katee Sackhoff, Jim Norton

Late Night with Conan O’Brien
Seth Rogen, Ann Curry, wine critic Gary Vaynerchuk

Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
Miss Piggy, Jonathan Silverman, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

Last Call with Carson Daly
Derek Fisher, Mindless Self Indulgence

The Daily Show
Jed Babbin

The Colbert Report
Michael Beschloss

PUSHING DAISIES at Comic-Con

I don’t think it’s a secret that my favorite pilot of the Fall season is PUSHING DAISIES. You’ve heard me talking about it on GMMR as well as gush about it on the GMMR|Ducky Podcasts. So I was beyond thrilled to be able to attend the PUSHING DAISIES panel at Comic-Con this weekend.

As the PUSHING DAISIES event was one my must-see panels at Comic-Con, Ducky and I took no chances and got in line at 7 AM for the 9:15 panel. There was already a pretty big line when we got there, but we managed to snag some fantastic seats in the 2nd row, dead center – perfect seats for all the PUSHING DAISIES yumminess that was coming our way.

The panel started off with a viewing of the premiere episode, the “pie-lette” if you will. This was my fourth or fifth time seeing it, but I found it just as enjoyable as my very first viewing. I was oddly nervous to watch the show with the rest of the audience. I wanted so badly for them to enjoy it as much as I had. But in the end, my worries were unfounded, as the premiere episode was more than well received by the packed room. Laughter was flowing throughout the episode, and from the collective “awws” from the crowd it was obvious that PUSHING DAISIES got it right with the emotional impact it was going for. The audience erupted in applause at the conclusion of the show, which must have sounded beautiful to the ears of the stars and the creative team that were watching along with us in the wings of the room.

Now that the episode was over, it was on to the good stuff, and by the good stuff I mean Lee Pace (my newest TV boyfriend). Lee, who plays Ned the Pie Maker, was joined by co-stars Anna Friel (Charlotte “Chuck” Charles), Chi McBride (Emerson Cod), Kristin Chenoweth (Olive Snook), creator Bryan Fuller (who also created “Heroes”, “Dead Like Me” and “Wonderfalls”), director and executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld, and executive producer Bruce Cohen.

      

Once introductions were over it was time for a little Q&A. Brian Lowry, from Variety, served as moderator and started by asking Chi McBride how he came to be part of the show. Chi spoke of reading the script and how he knew it was not like anything else on television, but he really knew he wanted to be a part of it when he met with director/executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld, whose work he had admired (and Chi can do a mean Sonnenfeld impression). Lowry then really got the crowd going when he asked Lee and Anna if they were “method” actors and if so did that mean they didn’t touch each other off-screen, ever? Anna Friel responded by grabbing Lee Pace and smooching him all over. The audience ate it up, and although seething with jealousy, I loved it too (for a video of this moment, check out www.thepiemaker.com). That moment might have been an important one for future fans of Ned & Chuck, because as Brian Lowry put it, “If the show runs 5 years, you’ve just seen Darth Vader without his mask“.

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