Behind The Screen!
So we’ve had Patrick Swayze coming back from the dead a la Tony Almeida, foiled terrorist plots in New York this Wednesday; it’s basically ‘24′ in real life at the moment. We’ve even had a lead man infected with a biological disease, but apparently Michael Jackson’s tour will still go ahead.
‘AEG Live’ President Randy Phillips said ‘I would trade my body for his tomorrow. He’s in fantastic shape.’ I assume then that Randy is either the alter ego of ‘Davros’ or Skeletor with Anorexia.
With the season finale of ‘24′ in the UK on Sky 1 coming on Monday I’m glad that the actual news will give me something to fill my time with until series 8. Kiefer Sutherland has said that the season seven finale of ‘24′ is the “best yet”. The actor told E! that because his character Jack Bauer is dying after becoming exposed to a bio-weapon, the upcoming final episode “will be much more dramatic” than previous season climaxes.”This is why with the last two episodes, I was so excited about playing them and why I’m so excited for people to finally see them,” Sutherland said.”It’s a real character shift for Jack Bauer.”
The star also added that the next season of ‘24′ is going “to be centered in one of the most realistic circumstances” yet. “I can tell you that it’s grounded in a political shift that’s taking place,” he said. “Some of our stuff, to be fair, is kind of far fetched. This one is actually quite possible.” I assume then it will center around the President buying a moat for the White House with a duck pond out of public funds. Hey, look at me all political! Who’d have thought…
So reports that cancer-stricken actor Patrick Swayze had died this week have been angrily denied. His recent series ‘The Beast’ ended on Five USA last week and regular readers would know I’ve been plugging it for weeks, as Swayze has been excellent as the lead. News of the 56-year-old Ghost star’s ‘death’ spread around the world on networking site Twitter. A radio station in Florida was also blamed for broadcasting it. But Swayze’s aide Annett Wolf said: “He is alive and responding well to treatment.”
The cheek!! No-one puts Swayze in the coroner. But hey, on the bright side, I’m looking forward to ‘Ghost 2′.
Something that I am happy about along with many others is that NBC has finalized a deal to bring ‘Chuck’ back for a third season.
However, to compromise, the 13-episode pickup came after Warner Bros. agreed to make significant budget concessions, including scaling back the number of episodes several members of the show’s stellar supporting cast will appear in. The show is also expected to cut two of its staff writers. Season Two has not yet started in the UK on Virgin one but Season 1 is now repeating on Bravo for those who missed it. I enjoyed it, it was pretty funny and Yvonne Strahovski is amazingly hot as agent Walker. Season Two also features Chevy Chase and Scott ‘Quantum Leap’ Bakula so watching’s a no brainer really!
In further good news, FOX has ordered another series of ‘Dollhouse’. The Joss Whedon-scripted drama stars Eliza Dushku as a secret agent whose mind has been wiped so she can be imprinted with any personality her handlers require; which if you remember I reviewed for my very first column when I was naïve and innocent.
It suffered pretty poor ratings, but Fox President Kevin Reilly said ‘This is a bet on Joss Whedon. If you looked at the profile of that show, he has an unbelievably loyal fan base. It did consistent in the ‘live’ ratings [when it aired in its time period] and consistently [ranked] as one of the biggest time-shifting shows on the air so we’re placing our bet on Joss.”
The show premiered in the UK on Tuesday at 9pm on the Sci-Fi Channel, and for those who missed this weeks pilot, a catch up is on SciFi at 8pm on Sunday (24th).
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDcEKo4V7fA
Cancelled this week however was ‘Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles’. I caught the first 4-5 episodes of the first series and really couldn’t get into it; and it seems like that’s been the norm across the US also. ‘Terminator’ was actually the higher-rated of the two FOX Sci-Fi series’ (4.6 million viewers on average vs. 3.7 million for ‘Dollhouse’); however as stated above it seems they went with the Whedon factor ahead of the ‘Terminator’.
Also surprisingly cut from NBC was ‘My Name is Earl’. The show’s sidekick, Ethan Suplee, posted on his Twitter page – “Just got the call that My Name Is Earl has been canceled.They sure did take their time with that decision — or rather informing us of it.” An ‘Earl‘ insider says execs at 20th Century (the show’s producer), are in discussions with Fox and ABC about picking up the four-year-old comedy; so maybe it will return on a different channel – watch this space.
A show that did end but has come back from the dead Swayze style is ‘Scrubs’ which has been renewed for a Ninth season. The show wrapped up earlier this year in the US with an episode called “My Finale”, which resolved several ongoing storylines and that many felt should have finalized the show. But ABC now says the show will continue – with Braff returning for six episodes. According to the Hollywood Reporter, actress Sarah Chalke (Dr Elliot Reid) has also been approached to work on the transitional episodes, but “only 1 or 2″ according to creator Bill Lawrence.
Rumours are that the show may center on Turk’s character teaching at Med School, which to me, without the rest of the cast could go badly wrong. Whatever idea he ultimately goes with, Lawrence said “The one promise I would make to people is that if this does suck, it won’t suck in a lame fizzle-out kind of way,” he says. “It will suck in a huge way. It will really, really suck.” Good to see some real confidence eh!?
Finishing its penultimate series last Sunday (Wednesday in the US) was ‘Lost’ and the double episode was a welcome return to top form. After getting to the point of frustration with the show like many others, now the end is nigh I’m pretty disappointed it’s ending! The ‘Lost’ finales averaged 800,000 viewers for Sky1, according to early viewing figures, so it seems many of those who ducked out mid series may have dropped back in to see how it all pans out. Maybe in 2010 we’ll have a re-cap and open up a few unanswered questions before the final series begins!
We also saw the end of ‘Prison Break’ this week, although the feature length ‘Prison Break:The Final Break’ will be showing in the UK on Sky1 at 10pm this coming Wednesday. This two part piece will tie up the gap at the end of the final episode; i.e a pointless money spinning DVD sale exercise. As said previously, I loved the First Season of the show but then each season tailed off before, like ‘Lost’, i was happy to see it go. As for the ending, it was always going to be unsatisfactory and i have to say I was disappointed with how it finished; and also a bit surprised they went with the ending they did. I have some spoilers for the Special on the topic so i wont go into too much detail, so for those fans who want to see how the very end came around – tune in Wednesday!
Lastly, former Captain Kirk William Shatner, who’s amazing vocals featured in last weeks column, is currently to be heard on YouTube cartoon ‘The Gavones’.
The animated short should be seen as a cartoon version of the Sopranos-meets-Hollywood, William said.
The former Star Trek actor voices Don Salmonella Gavone in the cartoon, which he also directs. William said: “It is the Mafia in Hollywood trying to make a hit – and half the family think it’s murder and the other half thinks it’s a movie. It’s a comedic Soprano family.”
P.s I promised I’d mention ‘Knightrider’ which made its debut on Bravo in the UK this week. I watched 20 minutes, it sucked. Royally.
Have a good weekend!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7MmJIy0bjo
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- Behind The Screen – 3rd April 2009
