POSSIBLY THE ONLY notable thing about the 2008 Emmy broadcast was the utter dominance of "30 Rock." The show won best comedy series, Tina Fey won for both her writing and lead actress performance and Alec Baldwin scored as well.
One person who went unacknowledged was Tracy Morgan, despite the fact that his television alter ego, the infantile star Tracy Jordan, has racked up such notable achievements as Source Awards nominee, NAACP Image Awards presenter and Academy Awards watcher.
In the hopes of inspiring next year's Emmy voters to "live every week like it's Shark Week," let's revisit Tracy Jordan's Top 5 most outrageous schemes from season two, out Oct. 7 on DVD.
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YOUNG PEOPLE ARE barraged with media influences — some good and some very, very bad.
The following characters from the fall television lineup may be entertaining, but teen viewers should keep in mind that doesn't make them worthy of emulation.
With that in mind, here are the Top 5 bad influences from the new schedule. Consider it Express' very own PSA. After all, the more you know ....
» Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) , "Gossip Girl" (The CW)
From his dandyish attire to his casual drug use to his equally casual date-rape attempts, Chuck Bass has taken "Don't try this at home" to a level beyond even the "Jackass" fools. Although a recent episode revealed some of the family history behind Chuck's amorality, he's showing no signs of redemption yet.
His breakfast seems to consist of a joint and a glass of scotch, he has been known to fly-in high-priced prostitutes from halfway across to the world to his penthouse apartment, and he only seems to show up at school to make undermining insinuations to his classmates and show off his scarf collection.
Although Chuck as a character is delightfully debauched, impressionable teens should be advised that the excuse "I'm Chuck Bass" can't be expected to work for anyone who isn't Chuck Bass.
Continue Reading "The More You Know: Top 5 Bad Influences From Fall TV" »
THE BRAVO-SANCTIONED title of this episode was "Nature Calls" — a perfect metaphor for a piss-poor season with particularly excremental judging in this episode.
All I want — all any of want — and have wanted for weeks is for That Bitch Kenley to get off our screen. Not only would fans of the show breather easier, but her fellow contestants would enjoy a more convivial workroom experience, the judges would not have to endure her grimacing, sassing and eye-rolling performance on the runway, and poor Tim Gunn would not have his perfect ears pinned back by the ravings of this shrew. Add to that, Miss Thing herself would know failure, something to which she should get comfortably accustomed. Every time she ekes through with some unwearable abomination in a print that looks as if the entire Natchez Garden Tour threw up on it, she is reassured that she's an "edgy" super-genius and everything she touches turns to Chanel. And this, pigeons, this is not true.
So, of course this posting is going to be all about her, which is as she wants it and as the episode shaped this segment of the season. We begin with Kenley whining that Leanne sabotaged her by posing poorly in her insane Consuela-goes-to-the-mall "hip-hop" look the week before. This girl! Her resistance to accepting that she might every be the source of her own failure is mind-boggling.
"SPORTS NIGHT" DIDN'T reinvent the half-hour sitcom, but it deserves more credit than it gets. And in 1998, the show was revolutionary for its ability to combine serious issues (steroids in sports, sexual assault, infidelity) with situational comedy.
The show about the inner workings of a fictional ESPN "Sportscenter"-style show was one of the first in the so-called 'dramedy" genre, and it was also creator Aaron Sorkin's first foray into television. ("The West Wing" started after "Sports Night's" first season.)
The complete series — just two seasons — was released on an eight-disc 10th anniversary edition DVD this week, and it reminds viewers why "Sports Night" was so good: It featured relatable, motivated and likeable characters, and it was sharp, witty and funny when it wanted to be, and it was touching when it needed to be. It just never found an audience.
Josh Charles and Peter Krause starred as Dan Rydell and Casey McCall, the two-man anchor team ranked third behind ESPN and FOX. Casey was straight-laced, Dan a bit more dry and sarcastic — but together they have the kind of natural chemistry you saw from Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick on the golden days of "Sportscenter."
Felicity Huffman — the real star of the show — plays "Sports Night's" producer, Dana Whitaker, a strong woman holding her own in a man's world. Natalie Hurley (Sabrina Lloyd) and Jeremy Goodwin (Joshua Malina) are her associate producers, who also happen to be dating. The great Robert Guillaume rounds out the cast as managing editor Isaac Jaffe, who has covered everything from the famous "The Dodgers win the pennant" baseball game to NASA. Issac is everyone's father figure — a staple of Sorkin's work.
The program was also incredibly accurate for what it was — a bonus feature on the DVD set has ESPN employees comparing the show to real life — and in the series "Sports Night" has to grapple with the network stepping in to make changes, its parent company being sold and nearly losing the show. If anything, it seems Sorkin was writing from experience — Sorkin fought against a laugh track, which is annoyingly there in season one, but gone in season two — and "Sports Night" was all the better for it.
Below are our picks for "Sports Night's" Top 5 highlights. (If you haven't seen the show, here's your spoiler alert warning.)
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LIKE EVERY OTHER serious contender for "America's Next Top Model," Isis King knows her stuff when it comes to makeup.
"A little lip gloss helps freshen any look," the Prince George's County native says. But when she offers another nugget of wisdom — "I've learned concealer is your best friend" — it's hard not to recall that King, who was booted at the end of last week's episode, is not entirely like the other women on the show.
Although they all had to work it in a series of shoots, King faced the additional challenge of posing in skimpy outfits while obscuring from view signs that she's a pre-op transsexual. Not that the other contestants and panel of judges weren't clued in. From the first round of the competition, her fellow models gabbed catty comments to the cameras. And host Tyra Banks sent her packing with a speech telling her she was already an inspiration to the LGBT community.
FIFTEEN PERCENT OF children today are overweight and one of the major reasons is the easy access to unhealthy food and preconceived ideas that cooking is hard — and obesity, diabetes and liver disease are some of the consequences of kids not being comfortable in the kitchen.
But, hell, if Rachel Ray created a food empire without culinary training, regular kids can surely follow directions for a homemade mac and cheese.
The new Web series "Jr. Chefs of America" paves the way for kids to not just help in the kitchen but also to lead the cooking process. The program features confident teenagers giving live cooking demonstrations of their own recipes, showing that cooking is fun and easy — and one avenue to help stop the junkfood epidemic.
"Jr. Chefs" is both entertaining and educational for children — with delicious looking food and a catchy theme song — and creator/producer Michelle Green hopes to move the show to television and also come out with a line of "Jr. Chefs" merch: pots, pans, griddles, etc. And for even more interaction, there will soon be a submit-your-own-video option.
Express caught up with Thomas Minkowski — one of "Jr. Chef of America's" teen hosts — on IM to chat about the show, his favorite dishes and his biggest kitchen mishap.
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POODLES! PIGEONS! POSSUMS! Puppies! Plankton! Did you wait for me, the rose wilting between your teeth, the champagne growing warm, the violinist striking up "Time After Time" time after time?
It was a day of disasters, beginning with the fact that I lost my garbage can. Did the cleaners hide it? Who does that?
So, tears, tears, tears of regret for the late post. Let's get to shredding these bitches.
Man, I took a million notes during this thing and you know what I have to say about it? Nothing.
As in Season 2, the designer will be designing for each other, meanwhile each wearing a design someone else designed for them. (It's fun to type "design" a lot. Not as much fun as "throughout," but fun.) It probably took three seasons for the producers to figure out how to streamline this gangbang of sewing, stitching and modeling, and it's still what Gossip Girl calls a fustercluck.
The challenge was presumably crafted to hoist the contestants from Comfort Zone to another province, either Step It Upville or Incapability Island, and it's a measure of the show's distressing devolution that everyone landed on Clueless Atoll, sharing around their one coconut. After, of course, the producers aufed the only person who could have rocked this challenge to Canada Day. Poor Stella Barbarella — how much would you have given to be watching that episode in her batcave over a bowl of gluten-free chicken claws? Ratbones is all, "Don't cry, baby. Have some more more of my blood; that always picks you up."
REMEMBER WHEN OUR love affair with "Heroes" started?
We were enamored with the show that was unabashedly nerdy, complete with comic-book fonts and stylized character design, dark rooms and vivid explosions, artistic prophets and flying politicians.
"Save the cheerleader, save the world" became a mantra not just for sci-fi geeks but for all lovers of good television.
This lasted for ... one really good season.
Then came the writers' strike, and "Heroes" stopped returning our calls. We worried about its commitment. Hiro was spirited away to feudal Japan; Peter annoyingly had amnesia (but compensated by frequently going shirtless); and a whole spetrum of douchebaggery occurred, from Veronica Mars' dad to the weakened Sylar's fawning over the goop-eyed girl.
Given a complete season, the show likely could have redeemed itself, but no doubt it did some damage to its viewership with its fractured and aborted storylines.
But!
Season Three, which debuts Sept. 22, promises to finish what Season Two started, so it's time to take a look back at why we loved this show in the first place.
Continue Reading "Five Reasons to Give 'Heroes' Another Chance" »
NOTHING MAKES SENSE anymore. I'm not seeing what the judges are seeing. Kenley may be delusional, but I'm beginning to wonder whether La Vache Qui Rit is just the victim of spores the government has released or something. I mean, judging from the judging in this episode, I'm delusional, perhaps we all are.
Heidi comes out wearing an itty-bitty back dress with the interior shoulder strap showing and introduces some "very special ladies." A freaky oversize hobbit silhouette behind the PR scrim turns into a middle-aged woman. But the wrinklies on the runway are not the designers' clients, to Leanne's relief, as "None of us wanted to design for a bunch of old ladies, to be honest." Oh, be honest, do, Leanne. I'm sure you'll want to wear fabric-noodle-covered miniskirts well into your 50s. See? Delusional.
The clients are the ladies' daughters, who have recently graduated from college and are about to enter the professional world, they need workplace-appropriate outfits. What they really need is hair makeovers — clothes you can buy, but these chicks have some skank-ass headsuits.
Kenley gets Anna, who is wearing a loud vintage plaid dress and is going to be an assitant buyer.
Korto's Megan is thinking about med school and likes dresses. She's very pretty.
Jerell's gotten artsy Caitlin, who's a great clotheshanger with an androgynous look.
Leanne's client, Holly, is looking to become Leanne-in-an-alternate-universe, an elementary-school teacher. She needs to look authoritative, but has a passion for animal prints. Uh, this won't end well.
Suede's got Avital, who majored in photography, and wants something easy to lug equipment around in that's still interview-professional. Understandably, she wants pants, which is "not Suede's thing" — because he's lazy, retarded and, what's the word? Oh, yeah — delusional — but he's "gonna have to go down that pant road." Man, if running up a pair of trousers is the psychological equivalent of performing major surgery, maybe Suede's in the wrong profession.
Joe's client, Laura, is going into graphic design, likes bright colors and has a nose ring. At Mood, he hunts for a pinstriped fabric. The spores, I wonder whether they're in the water or the air.
"From drag queens to college graduates with nothing in between. This is the world we're living in," moans My Heterosexual Viewing Companion, who's given up on this episode and buried his nose in "The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Volume 3."
WHAT IS TELEVISION'S fascination with assholes?
Thanks to Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine, the idea that a sitcom should focus on people who are friends but aren't necessarily good people has spawned many a follower. Think about "Entourage," "The Office" (especially the British version) and "Strangers With Candy," which introduced the world to the random jerk-ness of Stephen Colbert.
Continuing along that vein is FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," which cops "Seinfeld's" three-guys-one-girl format — but with a more offensive spin. Created by Rob McElhenney and developed by McElhenney and Glenn Howerton (who play Mac and Dennis, respectively), the show's past three seasons have left no politically correct topic untouched — racism, sexism, terrorism, slavery, sexual harassment, rape, drug abuse, abortion, gun control, eating disorders, gay and transsexual rights ... the list seems infinite.
With the show's fourth season premiering Sept. 18, you should have a little background before jumping onto this button-pushing bandwagon. Here are the five reasons Dennis (Howerton), Sweet Dee (Kaitlin Olson, McElhenney's fiancee), Charlie (Charlie Day), Mac (McElhenney) and Frank (Danny DeVito) star in the funniest show on TV.
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Addison Road
