Category — Television

Len’s back this week. I’m kind of wondering how the teams that loved Michael so much last week will react. Plus they will be broken up into teams for a team dance. I’m curious to see how that will go. So, shall we get to it? [Read more →]

There’s not a whole lot to this story in the Los Angeles Times that The Walt Disney Company is facing cuts.  But it is enough to scare those working for the mouse.  Staff writers Dawn C. Chmielewski and Meg James report.

Bracing for a worsening economy and further declines in ad spending, Walt Disney Co. executives have been meeting this week to prepare belt-tightening measures that could include job cuts, according to people familiar with the discussions.

I’ve been around long enough to remember that when the economy slows down, cuts at Disney can include delaying new theme park projects and renovations, reducing the scope of projects, or scrapping them entirely.  Just because something makes it into a preview center doesn’t mean it is going to happen, or end up quite like it was described when it was first announced.  If something can’t be build to original scope, here’s hoping it is built in a way that will allow “plussing” when the economy picks up again.

Last week, ABC News President David Westin asked his staff in a memo to be more frugal “to make sure that we have all the resources we need to cover the news.” The cost-saving measures include recommendations that executives should fly “one grade below what they’re entitled to,” and “stay in ‘B’ level hotels.” Holiday parties would be scrapped this year, and the news division will cancel newspaper and magazine subscriptions.

The people at the paper can feel the pain of Disney staffers, as the paper has been sending staff packing quite a bit lately.  Most newspapers have.

Speaking of cuts… my wife and I have reduced the rent for our Anaheim condo to well below market rates.  If you know someone who would like to rent a place that is a short drive away from the Disneyland Resort and otherwise conveniently located, check out this listing.  We recently moved to a house, and so now we need to rent out our condo.

The last 24 hours have been interesting, to say the least. Carrie Ann’s comments to Cloris sparked off many a comment on blogs. While some agreed with her, many said that Carrie Ann was downright rude and owed Cloris an apology. Heck, it even got discussed here (and I was delighted to read the comments.) I’m curious to see if they will mention this at all tonight. The even bigger question is: Will it affect the vote?

Well, I hate my DVR tonight. After typing that last paragraph, I turned on my TV to watch the results after they had already aired only to find that they weren’t there. It seems to do that to me once or twice a season with this show. I wonder why only this show. Anyway, I managed to find a recap, so I’ll recap the recap (and since I skip about half the results shows anyway, I won’t bother watching it online later.) [Read more →]

Tonight should be very interesting. Not only do we have the group dance (old school hip hop. Cloris will be a hoot.) but we’ve got Lord of the Dance Michael Flatley sitting in for Len. I can hardly wait to see how he reacts to the performances. [Read more →]

30-Minute Preview of Nationally Syndicated Action-Adventure Epic Available as a Free Download Exclusively on the iTunes Store

Action-adventure fans can enjoy a first look of the highly-anticipated epic fantasy series “Legend of the Seeker” before its November 1st premiere weekend. Beginning today, Disney-ABC Domestic Television is offering an extended preview of the nationally-syndicated series as a free download, exclusively available on the iTunes Store (http://www.iTunes.com). The free download, entitled “Legend of the Seeker: A First Look,” will give fans the opportunity to view the first 30-minutes of the upcoming two-hour television event executive-produced by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, the team that brought the characters of Hercules and Xena to life almost a decade ago. If you’d rather not go through iTunes, you can view watch the first 10 minutes at the official site.

“Fans have been clamoring to get a first look at the series and based on the early response from the clips released on the ‘Legend of the Seeker’ website, we knew this would be a huge success with audiences,” noted Janice Marinelli, President, Disney-ABC Domestic Television.

Shot with the exotic and rugged New Zealand landscape as its backdrop, the one-hour scripted series is an adaptation of internationally best-selling author Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth book series. “Legend of the Seeker” explores the adventures of woodsman Richard Cypher (Craig Horner, “Monarch Cove” and “Blue Water High”), who discovers that he was born to fulfill a prophecy of becoming a guardian hero to oppressed people. With the help of a mysterious woman named Kahlan (Bridget Regan, “Sex and the City” and “Six Degrees”) and a wise old wizard named Zedd (Bruce Spence, “Mad Max 2″ and “The Matrix Revolutions”), he must stop a ruthless and bloodthirsty tyrant named Darken Rahl (Craig Parker, “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”) from unleashing an ancient evil and enslaving the world.

“Legend of the Seeker” is produced by ABC Studios, marking their first venture into broadcast syndication. Sam Raimi (”Spider-Man,” “Spider-Man 2,” “Spider-Man 3″ and “The Evil Dead”), Rob Tapert (”The Grudge,” “Xena: Warrior Princess,” “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” and “Cleopatra 2525″), Joshua Donen (”The Quick and the Dead”), Ned Nalle (production executive for “Xena: Warrior Princess” and “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”) and Ken Biller (”Star Trek: Voyager” and “Six Degrees”) serve as executive producers.

“Legend of the Seeker” has been cleared by Disney-ABC Domestic Television in more than 95 percent of the country, including all of the top 50 markets. The series will premiere with a two-hour event the weekend of November 1st (http://www.LegendoftheSeeker.com for times and channels).

Well, it’s now 11 PM California time, and I’m just now sitting down to watch the show. Got talking to my roommate and time got away from us. So I hope I didn’t miss anything too big in the recap show. I might have been interested in the interviews, but considering the time, I skip them. Did watch the scene from High School Musical 3. I so wish I could go see it Friday. That scene made me ready to see it. Like the constant ads on TV haven’t already done that.

But that’s another post. Let’s get to the results. [Read more →]

So tonight is all about the new as the celebrities do one of four dances that have never been done on the show before. Personally, I can’t wait to see what I think, so let’s get right to it. [Read more →]

Sorry this is a bit late this week. There’s no Play-by-Play recap of ABC’s Life On Mars this week. Instead I’ll just give you the gist of the show and the surprises we encounter.

Sam Tyler is trying to figure out what exactly happened to him. It’s a lot to consider, but he knows one thing. He’s good at catching bad guys, so why not do that. Good thing or we’d have no show to watch.

The case of the night involves armed robbery. They catch a guy who can’t swim at the pool and need to find some evidence to connect him to the crime. Gene Hunt votes to just plant the evidence, but Tyler wants to do it the 21st century way.
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I was going to live-blog this episode of Pushing Daisies. Basically because I’m trying to multi-task. But I guess the inability to do so is one of my bad habits. Speaking of bad habits…did you get tonight’s title pun? Because it took me all the way till right now to get it. *snicker* I likey.

One thing I usually never discuss in my amazing (and very wordy) recaps is the moral of each episode. Have you noticed? There’s always this parallelism between the murder and the relationships of our principal pie folks.

Today’s moral was summed up by the delicious Jim Dale while narrating young Olive Snook’s intro story, “Digging was messy work but it could unearth untold treasures.” So, while I gush about the costumes and the funny  names, let’s keep this in mind, shall we?

Now, let’s begin back at the convent with our long lost waitress…

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Tonight we’d actually have the potential for some drama. If they hadn’t told us who was the bottom star last week, that is. As it is, we are in for a night of patiently waiting out the clock until we get the result we all know is coming.

But enough of that. It’s not like I ever spend that long on the results as it is. [Read more →]