The TV Zone

One of our favorite shows of all time returns for an encore run this weekend, so rev up the DVR to catch it from the very start.

Starring Paul Gross (“Due South”) and Mark McKinney (“Kids in the Hall”), “Slings & Arrows” is so unique and so delightful, we can hardly find words to describe it. But here are a few we found in reviewing its original Sundance Channel run:

Funny, romantic, biting, sweet, perceptive and often thrilling, "Slings and Arrows" is an exuberant salute to life, the theater and, not least, the television medium that brings us this rapier wit for six delectable hours, ending much too soon.

Blame Canada for the bracing portrayal of a nonprofit theater company beset by outrageous fortune, including but not limited to: the walking/talking/advice-giving ghost of its egotistical founder, the ever-odder "rebranding" exertions of its geeky business manager, and the oft-demonstrated probable insanity of its dashing director.

When we say TV doesn't get more adult, we don't mean naughty words (though there are many). We mean the intelligence of the approach and the deft shifts in comic/tragic tone.

This paean to the theater also takes on modern marketing, governance and more, but only tangentially to a cast of quirky characters so authentic you can practically smell them.

“Slings & Arrows” now airs Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. on Sundance Channel.

[In photo: Paul Gross, Don McKellar, Mark McKinney.]

Ira Glass has not only brought his NPR hit “This American Life” to visual life in a Showtime series, he’s also bringing himself to Manhattan this evening. The Chicago radio host will be speaking and signing his new “This American Life” DVD set at Borders-Columbus Circle at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31.

If you miss this signing, you’ll have to go to Michigan's Borders-Ann Arbor Feb. 9. However, Glass will be back in the area April 6 for an appearance at CUNY College of Staten Island.

The DVD set is sold exclusively at Borders for now.

[Above: Showtime photo by Douglas Barnes.]

Revisiting last spring’s two-hour “Lost” season finale (tonight 9-11 on ABC/7) isn’t the only way to catch up to the show’s goings-on before Thursday’s 9 p.m. fourth-season premiere.

If you haven’t already run across the web’s ubiquitous “Lost in 8:15” (also downloadable free at iTunes), it’s worth that much time to watch a recap of the previous three seasons’ main plot points. They’re narrated almost hilariously fast and with dry dollops of wit, but they certainly do the trick.

There’s also Thursday night’s 8 p.m. ABC special “Lost: Past, Present & Future,” promised by the network to “relive their story of survival to prepare for the shocking Season 4 premiere that will change everything.” And of course, those with hours to spare can watch full hour installments via DVD, download or ABC.com’s free streaming episodes, all three seasons’ worth.

Well?

That's by far the most important question in all of entertainmentdom at this very moment, and some are even daring to answer in the affirmative. Go to Nikki Finke's authoritative blog where she posted yesterday that a source told her "things are looking very good..."

That got me to thinking: Is this just another red herring from the Big Bad Studios, who would love nothing more dearly than to rewind the clock back to the days of Louis B. Mayer - when creative types were told what to do and TO LIKE IT (OR ELSE)?

A source - a very savvy veteran producer who's worked on numerous award-winning shows - emailed this observation to me not long ago. It's valuable because it puts the current break-in-the-clouds in some perspective. (Meanwhile, we've all got our fingers crossed...)

"The writers I picketed with on the line today are of two camps... 'rumor is it's over soon,' vs. 'We're out until April.' But with the news blackout it's all speculation. No one in the trenches knows anything. My vibraphone is unplugged (to stay sane) so no vibes here either way.
The cynics among us say the 'progress' meme is being floated by the opposition so that when the truly bad deal is revealed and the WGA rightly walks away the writers can be slimed by the highly paid and very crafty PR team the AMPTP [studios] hired: 'We were making great progress -- the rumor mill said so -- and those damn greedy writers walked because they wanted more.'

"I hope I'm wrong. I hope the rumors are right. But the rumors are just that. Rumors.

"The AMPTP jacked us around twice before (urging us to take DVDs off the table to make progress then they stonewalled us. This stunt was followed by their later promise to keep negotiating but instead they walked away from the table at 6:30 pm and issued a strenuously pre-cooked full-of-crap press release at 6:31 telling the media that we stonewalled). You'll pardon us if we expect a third [screwing-over.] The congloms are playing for real. Their goal is break the Guild and eradicate the residual system. It's not personal. It's business. Our goal is to stay united and move the residual concept into the 21st Century. For us it's very personal. It's our lives and livelihoods. If the AMPTP does the WGA dirty in this round of talks then, in my opinion, There Will Be Blood. "

(How would L.B. himself - above - handle these troublesome scribes?)

That massively gaseous windbag "Doctor" Phil was featured in heftily-promoted "exclusive" interviews on "Today" and "GMA" this morning - so what snake oil was he peddling THIS time?

At first it appeared that he was there to talk about more Britney Spears stuff - more nuggets from that memorable moment when he stole into her hospital room (all in the service of helping an old "friend" and goosing ratings on his daytime gabfest. Remember? He later issued some statement, saying “My meeting with Britney and some of her family members this morning in her room at Cedars leaves me convinced more than ever that she is in dire need of both medical and psychological intervention.” Hundreds of REAL doctors whacked him for making that declaration; he backed down and called off a special "Britney" show - doubtless because he didn't actually HAVE anything.)

Instead, he peddled the same old bull to Di Saywer and Matt Lauer: How he'd made the situation worse by saying what he said about Brit after he was kicked out of her room..."Make no mistake - I regret making the statement," he told Diane Sawyer. "This wasn't a publicity play for me," he said without conviction.

Of course, he's already said this before - on his own show, no less - so a disappointed Di started to fish for something fresh. No luck. She asked about the fact that he obviously didn't have a license when he went in the room to bug the desperate Spears; nah, that didn't phase him either.

Desperate herself, Di then went the route that all anchors go when they've either run out of stuff or don't wanna dignify "rumors" by asking about them straight out - what about all those "tabloid" stories, she wondered?.Phil pretended he was happy to clear the air: They're all "absolutely untrue." No, his wife has not left him; no, Oprah did not give him "a pink slip...absolutely untrue." No, he never "planned a [Britney] intervention..absolutely untrue."

Of those widespread reports of a rift with O? "In fact, Oprah is an absolutely wonderful guest on our 1000th show [Friday]...we talk about that. We talk about everything."

Finally, the reason for these "exclusive"interviews - to promote the Friday show.

Ah, TV - what a game.

Remember that moment on last night's show...who could forget? A memorable "Idol" moment for the ages (or at least until we forget in a couple hours.)

This wonderful corn-fed talent-free kid named Chris Bernheisel comes on bearing gifts for Simon and Randy (Paula was sleeping in - hey, this gig only pays $10 million a year...) He mangles a song, then charms the uncharmable Simon into harassing the local Fox affiliate - KPTM/42 - to hire him for its red carpet coverage of the finale.

Bulletin: The corn-fed Fox affiliate has apparently declined. Or at least that's the way it appears: Check out the station's website and go to the video with Bernheisel and the two local anchors; it's an amusing addendum to last night, and Bernheisel even breaks a little news of his own - that "Access Hollywood" has offered a Red Carpet on-camera gig for the kid. "Oh my gosh - 'Access Hollywood' has called, MTV, the Fox [station] out of LA...'"

The Fox station out of Omaha - which had a golden opportunity plumped right in its lap? Apparently no call from station management there. The anchors end the interview by saying they'll check back with him now and then, and otherwise don't let the door hit you on the way out.

We call this in the trade a "badly bungled promotion opportunity."

Now, I wonder if Simon will call and harass them personally?

NBC - which long long ago, was actually a pretty good network - has renewed "The Celebrity Apprentice."

Okay, I'll just give you a couple minutes to let this news sink in...

Sunk in? Good.

Yes, re-newed and it certainly now appears that the only challenge before Trumpster is in trying to exhume a new celebrity cast more obscure than the current. The press release that NBC just sent out is stuffed with a lot of self-congratulatory quotes from various figures in the charity trade (winnings, as you know, go to the celeb's favorite cause). I'll spare you all those except - suffice to say - NBC is treating this renewal like it's a cure for AIDS in Africa.

In a statement, NBC reality biggie, Craig Plestis,had this to say about the renewal: "This revved up installment of 'The Apprentice' has been a game changer for the series. As the rest of this season unfolds, you just keep watching, these episodes have been more thrilling than any season before. There were times when I was screaming at the TV set, literally."

There's more: This season's finale will air (live!) on March 27 from NYC.

Do not be fooled - "Celeb App" is not a huge ratings success, averaging around 9 million, or about the same as "Nightly News." But in NBC's current condition - fourth place, "American Gladiators" as the season's only stand-out, "Lipstick Jungle" just around the corner - nine million looks FABULOUS.

As it turns out, "Dancing with the Stars" WAS a good career move for my favorite hoofer, Marie Osmond. The big news (so far) out of that boozy programfest known as NATPE - on-going as we speak - is that Ms. O will host a talk show in the fall of 2009.

Her personal guarantee: No dancing. No fainting.

Just kidding. Marie's unpredictable; she could end up doing both. In any event, Marie held a press conference a little white ago, saying that the production company backing this new baby (Program Partners) is "giving me the freedom to do some things that I feel strongly about, and the timing is right for a show like this."

Why is "the timing right for a show like this?" I have no idea - I wasn't there to ask her. But Marie's done a few other talkers, including something she did with Donny back in the late '90s.

This comes as little surprise, but we'll report it, anyway:

CBS has renewed “Survivor” for next season. That means we can look forward to a 17th and 18th installment of the reality series, which premiered way back in May of 2000.

And Jeff Probst has signed a new deal to continue as On the other hand, what else could he do? (Besides occasionally filling in for Reege, which he has done admirably.)

The 16th edition, “Survivor: Micronesia,” with a fans vs. favorites format, premieres Feb.
7.

Uh-oh, the networks better solve that writers’ strike fast. Here comes a Nielsen magnet to suck away all their (remaining) viewers. It’s a scripted series of proven durability. But not just any scripted series fave.

This one has women bouncing down the beach in slow motion!

Yes, “Baywatch” is coming back. Not as a new series, just repeats. But in this winter of our discontent with el cheapo reality crud, that may be enough. Pamela Anderson, Yasmine Bleeth, Brooke Burns, Carmen Electra and that whack-a-mole survivor David Hasselhoff return to the broadcast airwaves March 3, when the ION network (WPXN/31 in New York) starts running repeats of the ’90s hit Monday-Thursday at 10 p.m.

Well, it’s better than “Who’s the Boss?”

The concept behind HBO’s compelling new half-hour shrink drama “In Treatment” didn’t just debut last night. It originated three years ago in a groundbreaking Israeli series about a psychiatrist’s weekly visits with various patients and his own therapist, seen nightly on the days he sees them. (HBO airs new episodes weeknights at 9:30.)

Newsday reviewed HBO's version yesterday, but this feature story from The Boston Globe traces the impact of the award-winning original, “BeTipul,” and talks with its creator, Hagai Levi. More details here, in Hebrew.

Watch this week’s first five episodes of “In Treatment” free online at HBO’s site here.

[HBO photo above: "In Treatment" Tuesday patient played by Blair Underwood, with shrink Gabriel Byrne.]

"Crash"....the SERIES?!

Yup, "Crash," the series.

Starz - hellbent to start rubbing original production shoulders with AMC and FX - just announced that it'll create "a new original drama series based on the Academy Award®-winning Best Picture will debut exclusively on Starz in 2008. The 13-episode, one-hour series, co-produced with Lionsgate, will be Starz’s first ever original drama...."

And there's more: All the boldface names behind the movie will also produce the series, including...co-writer/producer Paul Haggis, co-writer and producer Bobby Moresco, producer Bob Yari, producer Don Cheadle, producer Mark R. Harris and executive producer Tom Nunan.

Starz helpfully says that this is only the second time ever that a best-pix was made into a series ("In the Heat of the Night," was the first - and as you may recall, that did not exactly drape the movie in glory and honors.)

Here are the canned quotes:

“I'm very happy that Lionsgate and Starz have decided to develop Crash into a series,” said Haggis. “Ironically, my initial impulse was to present the material in a format for television. I am thrilled it's coming full circle and can't wait to see how it expands and transforms.”

"For me, exploring the characters and conflicts in ‘Crash’ was a great experience,” said Moresco. “The idea of doing it again in a weekly series is tremendously exciting.”

"This series will present an opportunity to delve into many subjects, not just race relations in LA,” said Cheadle. “I don't think you can do 13 episodes on that subject and keep people interested. The challenge will be to craft the series characters in such a way as to get beneath the skin that supposedly differentiates them and create entertaining story lines that show the hurdles and obstacles we all struggle to overcome day to day."

No word on casting. Might Don consider though...? (No, he probably might not - this is TV after all.)

Well, whoop de do. In a week that brings the premiere of a great new season of “Lost” (look for my Wednesday print-edition column here) and the enthralling new HBO series “In Treatment,” plus ABC’s quirky new “Eli Stone” and other shows with actual scripts, it’s hard to work up much excitement for this just-announced news flash:

“NBC will premiere the new high-energy competition series ‘My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad’ on Monday, February 18 (8-9 p.m. ET) after ‘American Gladiators’ finishes its winter run, and will debut the comedy quiz show ‘Amne$ia’ on Friday, February 22 (9-10 p.m. ET) following the season finale of ‘1 vs 100.’”

Amazing. In one short sentence, NBC mentions four shows, and I don’t care about any of them!

Here’s a fifth: “‘The Baby Borrowers,’ originally scheduled to premiere on February 18, will move to a later date to be announced.” That’s the one where cameras follow real-life teens playing-pretend with marriage, babies and jobs. You know, the usual burn-some-brain-cells ephemera beloved of “reality” TV.

Why is NBC even producing shows anymore? Why don’t they just run a direct YouTube feed? That’s what the network’s continuing descent into the bargain basement seems to be leading to. Is it better to make money fast on cheap and disposable shows? Or to try to build an enduring business of lasting assets that continue to return revenue years from now as well as a modicum of immediate esteem? (Don't just blame the writers' strike. NBC was riding the down escalator long before that.)

There is one tiny hint of hope that the network might actually recall its glory days of doing the latter: “quarterlife,” an actual scripted series, even if it did originate on the web, produced by “thirtysomething”/“My So-Called Life” kingpins Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick. That drama’s announced Feb. 18 debut has been pushed back to a Tuesday, Feb. 26 preview, with a regular run starting Sunday, March 2 at 9 p.m.

Daytime drama keeps plugging onward, despite the writers’ strike, and despite controversy in the tightknit soap community about the effect of “scab” scripts on the struggling genre.

So the networks are throwing some stars onto the screen to maintain viewer interest. Mario Van Peebles [in ABC photo above] joins the cast of ABC’s “All My Children” Tuesday (Jan. 29), as Samuel Woods, a prosecutor for whom “sparks fly” when he meets Susan Lucci’s indomitable Erica Kane. (Turns out Van Peebles isn’t new to soaps, either. He played Doc Gilmore on “One Life to Live” back in 1982-83.)

And onetime "Partridge Family" mom (then "Drew Carey" love interest) Shirley Jones [in NBC photo at right] joins “Days of Our Lives” Thursday (Jan. 31), playing matriarch Colleen Brady, who’s supposed to be dead. (Video preview here.)

Also arriving is a big star in the soap firmament -- Sarah Brown, a fan fave on ABC’s “General Hospital” in the late ’90s as the conniving Carly. That role now belongs to the firmly established Laura Wright, so Brown hits town Thursday (Jan. 31) in another one, playing a sexy new lady mobster. (Hey, wasn’t that the title of a Susan Lucci TV movie?)

That’s on top of “AMC’s” big recent return of ’80s supercouple Debbi Morgan and Darnell Williams as Angie and Jesse. He's dead, too. But in soapland, nothing's everlasting.

He’s not illegal so far as I know, but Craig Ferguson is still an alien in America. A native of Scotland who’s lived here for years, the late-night host has been pursuing U.S. citizenship with both real-life vigor and comedy-routine humor. One of the standbys of “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” has been him begging, pleading and stunting for honorary citizenship around the country -- his web site today boasts he’s obtained it from 16,109 towns (none in New York?), with 34,802 to go. [CBS photo above shows Ferguson updating which places he's got.]

An easier method would be getting the whole country in one fell swoop, and that’s what Ferguson talks about tonight on “Late Late.” At 12:35 a.m. the night of Monday Jan. 28/early Tuesday Jan. 29 (depending how you look at it), Ferguson relates what happened last Friday, when he went to the Los Angeles district office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for his citizenship interview.

We love it to be funny, but we’d love it to be real, too. Good thing Ferguson’s good at both.

Ok, as it turns out, after that last blog posting, ABC did send a follow-up email saying that it would - indeed - have to kill me if I gave up any plot details to this Thursday's two-hour "Lost" premiere.

This then leaves me with two options. 1.) Not give up any details, in the interest of personal safety, or; 2.) Give up some stuff but make it so oblique and obtuse that even ABC would have a hard time in court justifying the elimination of a TV critic (even though most courts are favorably disposed to actions of this sort.)

I'm gonna go with Option No. 2. Why bother (you ask)? Because this is "LOST" - the only scripted show left on TV, with maybe a "House" here, or a "Prison Break" there. What am I supposed to? Sit on my hands and pretend I haven't SEEN THE FIRST HOUR?! (which I have.)

Bottom line: It's good, very good. Anyway, without further ado, herewith some visual clues to the first hour of "Lost," back Thursday. At first glance, they may make no sense. At second glance, they make no sense. But trust me, each has something to do with Thursday's biiig show... (And assuming this doesn't bug you TOO much, I'll post clues to the second hour later.)

1.)That's right - lemons.

2.)Sweet ride. (Or was.)

3.) Thursday's key storyline centers on...

4.) Great movie - but who's crazy and who isn't?

5.) Can you, ummm, follow a lock? hmmm

6.) He's alive! Uhhhh, no, he's not. Or is he? Or...

ABC, bless 'em, appears to have had a change of heart regarding fourth season review copies of of "Lost." At first, the network seemed to indicate there'd be no advanced look at the Jan. 31 opener, and now it's effectively letting the entire world see by sending out streaming copies to TV critic types.

The great unwashed mass of us got our first look via the web on Friday, while DVDs apparently arrive today. Why the "change?" No idea, except that review copies had already started to trickle out to the "enthusiast" part of the review trade; one such aficionado, Docartz, even got a look at the first FOUR episodes weeks ago, and posted raves on websites like Underground. (Unclear whether TV Guide did - as it claimed - because one ABC insider said they only saw SCRIPTS for the first four episodes.)

ABC's late Friday offer to check out the episodes was accompanied by one of those "don't reveal plot details" lines - it was firm, though stopped short of adding "otherwise we will have to kill you."

In fact, it was quaintly charming: Here's a direct lift from said press release:

"We kindly ask that you use discretion in reviewing this show by not revealing any plot details that contain spoilers. We also ask that you refrain from discussing the following:

- The ****** ***.

- Any details about ******’s flash forward, or that *** even has a flash forward

- ******

- Who goes with ***** and who goes with ****

- Any details about the four strangers/********* people’s back stories/flash*******."

OK, we kindly won't (and I've thrown in an extra asterisk here and there, just to throw off any informed guesstimates...) By the way, Newsday's own - the one, the only, the incomparable - Diane Werts, will review later this week.

Too bad so few people get this channel. The nostalgia-centric AmericanLife TV Network (it is carried on the city’s Time Warner cable system) will run a seven-episode tribute tonight to Suzanne Pleshette, who died a week ago at age 70.

The tribute comes, of course, from “The Bob Newhart Show,” where for six seasons in the ’70s, Pleshette played the star’s (mostly) sensible wife with bite and style. (She also made one wonderful surprise appearance on his subsequent sitcom, “Newhart.” Remember that finale?)

In Jan. 28’s AmericanLife “Bob Newhart” marathon:
9 p.m.: Emily fights her fear of flying.
9:30: Vocation day at teacher Emily’s school.
10: Bob and Emily work on secretary Carol’s love life.
10:30: Emily dislikes Monday night football.
11: Emily wants to vacation in Europe.
11:30: Emily fills in as Bob’s receptionist.
12 midnight: Bob finds out Emily’s IQ is higher.

The first four seasons of “The Bob Newhart Show” are out on DVD, too.

Here's a You-Can't-Make-This-Stuff-Up Blog entry: The Federal Communications Commission has hit ABC with a $1.43 million fine over a scene that aired in "NYPD Blue" over five years ago.

This is big story (seriously) because this amounts to one of the biggest fines in FCC history. ABC sent out a statement a short while ago saying that it will appeal.

"Blue" - one of the greatest dramas in TV history - ended its brilliant run in March of 2005.

The scene in question?

Let the FCC statement do the talking: "[In the scene in] question, a woman wearing a robe is shown entering a bathroom, closing the door, and then briefly looking at herself in a mirror hanging above a sink. The camera then shows her crossing the room, turning on the shower, and returning to the mirror. With her back to the camera, she removes her robe, thereby revealing the side of one of her breasts and a full view of her back. The camera shot includes a full view of her buttocks and her upper legs as she leans across the sink to hang up her robe. The camera then tracks her, in profile, as she walks from the mirror back toward the shower. Only a small portion of the side of one of her breasts is visible. Her pubic area is not visible, but her buttocks are visible from the side."

(Sorry - Newsday will not be providing a picture at this juncture.)

Here's the ABC statement (and a call to Bochco productions yielded a "no comment.")

"NYPD Blue, which aired on ABC from 1993 to 2005, was an Emmy Award-winning drama, broadcast with appropriate parental warnings as well as V-chip enabled program ratings from the time such ratings were implemented. When the brief scene in question was telecast almost five years ago, this critically acclaimed drama had been on the air for a decade and the realistic nature of its storylines was well known to the viewing public. ABC feels strongly that the FCC's finding is inconsistent with prior precedent from the Commission, the indecency statute, and the First Amendment, and we intend to oppose the proposed fine."

Anyone who spends any time watching cable TV news knows that the latest scandal du jour is about this former cop in a Chicago suburb named Drew Peterson whose wife went missing a few months ago. Said cable news has already tried and convicted the guy of murder, but lemme tell ya - he didn't help his case a little while ago.

Peterson was star of a much-hyped exclusive interview with Shepard Smith; interview was going along swimmingly, when Peterson decided he didn't like the drift of the questions, and ripped out his IFB. And that was that. This sort of stuff doesn't happen too often (especially with heavily-plugged interviews) so here it is for your viewing amusement. (A piece of advice: Drag the button up to about 4 minutes to skip all the other stuff, if you're not interested in this over-wrought case).