BLUE MAG

It must be, or it couldn’t have been canceled today as NBC announced its new fall lineup. “Bionic Woman” remake, a “Sex and the City” remake, several shows featuring — are you sitting down? — supernatural twists, and “Heroes: Origins.” The best idea ever? I’m pretty sure it sounds rad…

The spinoff will introduce a new character each week, and viewers will select which one stays for the following season.

In what will probably end up as the best news of the week — especially after reading that CW has not booked the cast of “Veronica Mars” in to NYC for the upfront — NBC made right by Texas and picked up “Friday Night Lights,” moving it to … Friday nights. Will that be better? Maybe it will.

Continue reading Breaking NBC upfront news: “Crossing Jordan” is still on

Ted can’t believe it either

Anna Johns at TV Squad speculates that How I Met Your Mother was the subject of a hint earlier this week by TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello about a CBS comedy being in hot water.

Ausiello points out that the real problem is that nobody in the world considers the show in question as being on the bubble. With 10 million viewers the last few weeks, HIMYM (I love spelling it that way because it looks like one of the ineffable names) seems to be here to stay. It is a fabulous show. It will make you love straight sitcoms again. Neil Patrick Harris’ womanizing Barney character alone is reason to watch. Check it out Monday at 8 p.m. and then sign the petition to save it.

April brings some big premieres on cable of the basic and pay variety:

• Reno 911! - April 1
• The Shield - April 3
• Entourage - April 8
• The Sopranos - April 8

The Futon Critic is good for looking this kind of stuff up…

USA Today broke the story Monday that Michael Eisner feels that the internet is somehow cutting edge and the future of entertainment. His new company is producing a series of daily episodic shows for the interent. Daily!

Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner built his career trying to identify and shape hit movies and TV shows. Now he’s at it again, this time on the Internet.
His investment firm, The Tornante Co., will announce Monday the formation of a studio, Vuguru, that will acquire and develop slickly written, produced and acted Web video.

Vuguru also today will unveil its first show: a serialized mystery called Prom Queen that will roll out over 80 days beginning April 2 with daily installments lasting 90 seconds. It’s co-produced with production company Big Fantastic, in a deal brokered by United Talent Agency.

Read more about it here.

I’m reading from various sources right now that Andy Richter’s new NBC show, Andy Barker, P.I., is already being moved to allow a sweeter spot in the rotation for Tina Fey’s 30 Rock. Aaron Barhart reports on TV Barn that one of the 6 online episodes is an “online exclusive” meaning even with only 6 half-hours in the can they are not going to show everything.

Full disclosure: Though Andy Richter will always occupy a prime spot in my TV watching heart for his years on Conan, I have a hard time watching him as a star. After a few episodes I stopped watching his Fox comedy and though I like the premise of Barker more, I’m not even sure I’ll watch it…

I just read on TV Squad that Bravo has just bought Television Without Pity. Word on the street is that they will retain editorial control. Have I told you how bady I want to sell out?

You know, I think there probably should be more spinoffs. What is the last good spinoff you can think of. And I’m going to declare right now that CSI: Miami doesn’t count. It has to be a character from one show “gettting her own show.”

Like the planned ABC spinoff of ”Grey’s Anatomy” starring Kate Walsh’s Dr. Addison Montgomery-Sheppard. Wait a minute, was I just advocating on behalf of that? I was the very first “Grey’s” fan, but about the 10th time I heard the name “McDreamy” I realized that I had created a monster.

Anyways, word today is that Chris Lowell, Piz on “Veronica Mars,” has been cast on that spinoff. So I guess we know what LoVe / Piz = … (You had to be there.)

Variety, that glorious entertainment industry daily reported the following the other day:

CBS:
Pickup — “Babylon Fields,” an hourlong zombie-themed hour described by CBS as a “sardonic, apocalyptic American comedy-drama where the dead are rising and as a result, lives are regained, families restored and old wounds reopened.” Gerald Cuesta and Michael Atkinson wrote the pilot and will serve as supervising producers. Michael Cuesta, who directed the pilot for “Dexter,” will exec produce and helm via 20th Century Fox Television.

Pickup — “Twilight,” a drama about a vampire/private eye who’s dealing with the fallout from being immortal, his foes in the vampire world and a budding love for a mortal. Joel Silver is exec producing via Warner Bros. TV. Trevor Munson (”Lone Star State of Mind”) and Ron Koslow (”Beauty and the Beast”) wrote the script and will exec produce.

Continue reading New Shows

This is one spoiler news headline I wasn’t upset that I read too early…

Simone goes out with a bang
A love triangle came to a dramatic conclusion on last night’s Heroes, when Isaac fired his gun at “invisible” Peter and accidentally killed Simone.

To my mind, killing off Simone improves Heroes by about 20%. And with Mohinder rolling with Sark…I mean Sylar, the show has the opportunity to double their scores by getting rid of even more boring filler!

I’m not exactly plugged in to the whole music scene. I couldn’t bring myself to watch the Grammys last night, despite a modest desire to see the Police reunion. So I have nothing to say about that. What I do want to say is that I have only very recently been acquainted with Chris Brown, the R&B/rap artist (right), and come to realize that he was the young man recently appearing on “The OC.”

Which resolved for me the question of why that young man was such a terrible actor: he was not a terrible actor at all, merely just not an actor at all. This is what passes for an epiphany where the hip-hop world and I are concerned.