Category: tv

This evening, I’ll be going to the December Slashdot Meetup for Dallas, so I won't be able to watch Survivor (though I’ll be sure to record it on TiVo). I’ll probably be able to watch it on Friday or Saturday, but please don’t tell me who wins.

Let’s see — it’s down to Brian, Clay, Helen, and Jan. It’s been uncovered that Brian is a soft-core porn star, but I don’t hold that against him. And, both Helen and Jan seem harmless enough (though Jan seemed a bit of a kook at times, what with her burying every dead animal that they came across).

However, I do not want Clay to win. Not only has he been lazy in the tribe, but he’s also financially irresponsible with a load of self-imposed debt. Says The Smoking Gun, “[the] deadbeat Chuay Gahn tribe member was unemployed and collecting $949 in monthly unemployment benefits when a federal judge signed an order wiping away Jordan's whopping six-figure debt.”

I’ve written about The Mole before, and I was pleased to see a commercial for Celebrity Mole on one of the overhead-TVs at the gym. (The gym is one of the few places where I see commercials these days, since I use TiVo to skip over them when I watch TV at home.)

Variety reports that ABC has finished casting — and shooting — its celeb edition of “The Mole“. “The Mole 3” will star celebrities Michael Boatman (Carter on Spin City), Corbin Bernsen (Arnie on LA Law), Kim Coles (from Living Single), Erik von Detten (from Dinotopia), Baldwin brother Stephen Baldwin, comedian Kathy Griffin, and supermodel Frederique. Ahmad Rashad will be the host. The show quietly wrapped production earlier this month following nearly two weeks of on-location production in Hawaii. The six-part series is likely to air begin airing in January. […]

“Celebrity Mole Hawaii will premiere on Wednesday, January 8th at 10PM ET [9PM CST] following the series premiere of The Bachelorette.”

Though I use TiVo to skip over commercials for the most part, I do see a frame or two from time to time ;). And, if the commercial is especially memorable from that one frame, I sometimes rewind the hard drive (hmm, that sounds a bit awkward) to watch the commercial in full.

Such was the case recently when I stumbled across an ad on Comedy Central for the new show “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn”. The commercials were a bit vague, though I could discern that Colin Quinn would be featured as part of the show ;). But, that was good enough for me — I enjoyed him on SNL so I figured I'd give his new show a try, sight unseen.

So, I set my TiVo to record a season pass (which I could always delete later). And, I watched the first episode this evening. As it turns out, the show features a discussion among four famous people (actors / musicians / comedians) and Colin, very similar to the format of Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Well, more precisely, it’s like Politically Incorrect without the smarminess.

Just as the website’s description reads, the show really is about “the way people really talk off-camera, only the camera is on”. The panel (?) talks frankly, often to the point of hilarity. In fact, when I first started watching the recording and realized the show’s format (from watching the commercials, I thought that it might be a comedy/variety show or something), I was concerned that it might not be so good. But, after watching the first show, I look forward to future episodes :).

“Tough Crowd” airs Monday through Thursday at 11:30pm / 10:30 Central.

Josh passed along this behind-the-scenes look at Trading Spaces over at Salon.

[…] That the show looks so real may explain why people feel cheated when, for example, they find out that the show is not always shot chronologically.

In Houston, for example, in front of the camera, Doug asks carpenter Amy Wynn Pastor to make him a bench. The bench in question, however, is sitting a few feet away, almost finished. They are, technically, lying — but not being untruthful. Doug did indeed show his plans to Amy Wynn earlier, and she did build the bench. They just held off doing it for the camera. […]

Reading this did at first give me that what-do-you-mean-Santa-Clause-isn’t-real feeling. But, in the end, I can accept that Trading Spaces has to tweak “reality” to make it more interesting for a television audience. And, I’m no less of a Trading Spaces fan than before I read the article ;).

And, as of today, I’m also a Salon Premuim subscriber. Some things are worth paying for.

USA Today writes that HBO shows use real brands, but channel has no paid product placement deals:

Commercial-free HBO doesn't pocket a penny from the cars, phones and soft drinks seen in such shows as The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm. The 34-million-subscriber pay channel also prohibits paid placements in its original movies. […]

My favorite bit, though were the examples cited towards the bottom of the article, such as this one:

Motorola places about three or four cellphone models each season, with Tony favoring the StarTac. '“As long as our phones are not used to beat somebody over the head, I don't have a problem,”' says David Pinsky, director of entertainment marketing for Motorola. […]

Man, now I’m really jonesing to watch some Sopranos (if only I could get HBO here). (Link from Media Bistro).