TV Buzz: DOLLHOUSE Given Eviction Notice; SyFy Goes for Laughs; GLEE Star Gets Romantic…and more
November 12, 2009 by Kath Skerry
Hear that? That’s the sound of the random TV news buzzzzzzzing around in my head. In this week’s TV Buzz we’re talking about bringing the funny to SyFy. The romance of a GLEEker. The demise of HANK, EASTWICK and DOLLHOUSE. More vampire news and much more.
Move over NPH, it’s Taylor Swift’s turn to host. The ratings for last night’s Country Music Awards were 24% higher than Emmys this year. 16.8M viewers tuned in to the CMAs. That’s just about the same amount of Kanye jokes told since the VMAs.
A BUFFY faithful is getting back into the vampire business. Marti Noxon, a well respected writer/producer on series such as BUFFY, ANGEL, GREY’S ANATOMY, and most recently MAD MEN, has been hired by Dreamworks to write a remake of the 1985 horror comedy, “Fright Night” which is about a teenager who discovers his neighbors are vampires. At least Ms. Noxon knows her subject matter well. BUFFY fans should be delighted. Now if Noxon could only find herself some underwear. (Cinemablend)
Since we’re already on the subject of vampires, unless you’ve been living under a rock you probably have heard that “New Moon“, the second movie in the “Twilight” saga is opening on November 20th. Whether you’re Team Edward or Team Jacob, you’ll probably dig the full “New Moon” coverage over at EW.com. Oh wait, this is a TV column. Ok, then I guess I should tell you that Stephenie Meyer, the author of the “Twilight” books will be doing her only “New Moon’ related interview on Friday…with Oprah. I’ve already set the DVR. Go ahead and judge me. I can take it.
Are you a fan of MY BOYS? Well, I got a Twitter message yesterday from Jamie Kaler (who plays Mike Callahan) letting me know that he’ll be sending me updates from the set of MY BOYS when they start shooting again in January. I know I’m not the only MY BOYS fan around here, so who else is excited?! If you want to follow Jamie on Twitter, check him out at @jamiekaler. And tell him @gmmrtv sent you!
More TV buzz after the break…
Isn’t it romantic? Well it is for Dianna Agaron who is best known as Quinn Fabray on GLEE. The gorgeous blondie has joined the cast of the star-studded movie “The Romantics“. The movie tells the tales of seven close friends who reunite for the wedding of two of their friends. Dianna will play the younger sister of the bride-to-be, played by Anna Paquin of TRUE BLOOD fame. Other familiar faces from the small screen include Adam Brody (THE OC), Josh Duhamel (VEGAS) and Katie Holmes (DAWSON’S CREEK).
(WARNING: Casting spoiler alert!) MODERN FAMILY, not only one of the best new shows, but one of the best shows on TV period, continues to rack up amazing guest stars. CHEERS alum Shelley Long has already appeared as DeDe Pritchett, the estranged matriarch of the family. Next week’s episode will feature big screen stars Edward Norton and Elizabeth Banks. And just today it was announced that Minnie Driver will be guesting on a future episode as an old friend/co-worker of Claire (Julie Bowen). Move over 30 ROCK, it seems all the stars want to stop by and hang with this MODERN FAMILY. Who else would you like to see guest on MF in an upcoming episode?
It’s more out of this world tales for SyFy. On December 8th, the network will premiere OUTER SPACE ASTRONAUTS, a five episode series that uses “the latest in computer graphics technology to meld live-action and 3D animation.” The show is a futuristic comedy about eight military misfits and their lackluster captain, who journey to the far reaches of the galaxy on board the O.S.S. Oklahoma. BSG this isn’t, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by SyFy and it’s at least worth checking out.
The pink slips have been handed out and a few shows will be saying buh-bye soon. ABC canceled Kelsey Grammer’s HANK, a show so bad that it should honestly never made it to the air in the first place. The alphabet network also shutdown the witchcraft over at EASTWICK. The show will air it’s full 13 episodes, but according to an angry rant from the Executive Producer Maggie Friedman, the writers weren’t given enough time to wrap up the show in a proper manner. That’s always disappointing. Also going off the air is NBC’s TRAUMA. Question is…did anyone even know that show was on NBC?
We can’t be talking about canceled TV without mentioning the eviction notice that Joss Whedon’s DOLLHOUSE received this week. The demise of DOLLHOUSE has been a long time coming, so I don’t think anyone can feign surprise. It was a shock when the show made it through season one. A bigger shock when it got renewed for a second season. But with the ratings being so low that The CW was winning in the time slot, there was just no way Fox could justify keeping the show on the air. I know many, many will disagree with me here, but I think Fox made the right move. They gave the show a real chance to make it, but the viewers just weren’t there. And I don’t think at this point there was really a way to build the audience. Despite some strong episodes as of late, the show wasn’t perfect and it was flawed at its very foundation. I do feel for the fans of the show, but selfishly I’m hoping that this ending will mean a new beginning for Joss Whedon. Let the man go out and create on his own without being beholden to a network. We have all seen first hand the genius of that man. Maybe now he’ll have more time for DR. HORRIBLE and directing more episodes of GLEE. That’s not a bad thing. The final episode of DOLLHOUSE will air on January 22nd.
If you haven’t already entered our TOP CHEF: The Quickfire Cookbook giveaway, now’s your chance! The contest is only open to those who are fans of GMMR on Facebook and/or follow @gmmrTV on Twitter. So be sure to become a fan or follow me before November 29th at 5pm. Full details on how to enter can be found here. Only those who follow the entry instructions will be eligible.
One last thing before I sign off. Be sure to check out the brand new toolbar at the bottom on GiveMeMyRemote.com. Play around with it and test out the new features. From this toolbar you can easily share GMMR posts with your friends through tool like Twitter, Digg and Reddit (and I heart you ever time you share our posts, I really do!). You can use the Community tool Shoutbox to connect with other GMMR fans who use Facebook and get direct access to the GMMR FB page without ever leaving the site. So play around with it and let me know what you think. We are going to continue to have an occasional giveaway, like our Top Chef contest, that will be open to only FB or Twitter followers, so get on board and meet others who love TV just as much as you and me.
What other TV Buzz are you hearing these days? Share your thoughts on any of the news items above or share a little TV buzz of our own. The comments are open.
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Filed under #1 featured, Dr. Horrible, Glee, Hank, My Boys, Top Chef, TV Buzz, TV News
I love your TV Buzz posts because the bees and honeycombs remind me of the Bzzzzzzzzz episode of “Pushing Daisies”! Aww … good times.
Speaking of shows I love that are no more … very sad about the Dollhouse news. Yeah, I knew it was coming, but it still hurt a whole lot. While I never really fell for Eliza’s character of Echo, I was majorly in love with the supporting cast of Enver Gjokaj, Dichen Lachman, and Miracle Laurie. It truly was amazing that the second season happened, so I guess that’s one thing to be thankful for, right?
These days people are interested in shows that do not represent important issues such as war, human trafficking, violation of the human body, and the ideology of society. Dollhouse is amazing, and Eliza dushku continues to amaze and attract me. Dollhouse brings forth the argument of society vs technology vs the human brain, This show is arguing that technology will be dependable to such an extent that the human mind will be able to be literally shaped by technology, and not in the figurative sense of today’s society. The concepts continue to get better and better, and I wish society would promote more shows like this. Joss digs deeper into more complex and relevant issues than other show he has been involved in.
but superficial people will always believe the show is just an attempt to prove Eliza Dushku’s acting skills, which is wrong because Eliza can definitely act (IE: Faith on Buffy), and its not a matter of Eliza proving anything, its really her and Joss using their creativity to form an amazing show, which that have succeeded in. But i guess its not mainstream enough.
i feel like fox created a whirlpool for dollhouse, from the beginning. once they made a contract with Eliza, they were able to manipulate and change the show, that eliza and joss created. not only did they change the plots, but they aired it on one of the worst days of the week.
And they were confident in admitting that the only reason why they even considered renewing the show, was because they didnt want to get millions of fan complaints. In my opinion joss should have explored other options such as Syfy, as he and eliza hadnt already renewed the deal. Season 2 itself shouldnt have aired so quickly, but that was obviously the work of Fox, who wanted to get an early indication of the audience views, so they knew whether it was worth keeping. double episode december was a terrible idea. i loved watching double episodes, but people watching the show for the first time would lose interest in the plot by the second hour. the episode “meet jane-doe” met a season high with almost 3 million viewers, which dropped significantly by almost 1 million viewers by “A Love Supreme” – both were equally amazing episodes. this proved that most people tuned in for the first episode, but not enough suspense was built up in the 5 minute break for all of the viewers to return. which is why two-part episodes are only good for well established shows, or season finales.
overall its pretty obvious that most viewers do not want to continue watching the show on Fox, as Fox barely promotes the episodes, and gives it the friday night deathslot. Therefore the show deserves an actual shot, from a network like Syfy, that might actually take an interest in the shows future