It’s TCA (Television Critics Association) time again, when the networks trot out the stars and producers of their shows so critics can ask those burning questions. Each day begins with a question and answer session with the network honcho before the rest of the day devoted to the shows. The following is the Best of the TCA – whether it’s ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson criticizing new NBC president Ben Silverman, or House producer Katie Jacob’s revealing the scoop on those new cast members, the TCA is not an ordinary boring press conference.
ABC
ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson lost his cool, unleashing a verbal assault against new NBC Entertainment co-chair Ben Silverman. McPherson asserted that in casting Isaiah Washington in NBC’s Bionic Woman Silverman is "either clueless or stupid."
McPherson also announced that actor Harold Perrineau would return to Lost, and that the pilot of ABC’s comedy Cavemen (based on those annoying Geico ads), perhaps shouldn’t have been sent out to advertisers and journalists immediately following the upfronts last spring.
“We’ve recast one of the leads, and the pilot that you have seen will not be the pilot, because I just think it just goes way too far into the development of those characters, and kind of right into the frying pan,” McPherson said. “I think we made a mistake there, and tried to do too much. So we’re going to take it back, that episode, with some re-shoots, and obviously the recast, and it will probably be, you know, [I’m] guessing, episode 5 or 6 in the run. So we’re, in essence, shooting a new pilot.
“We have to develop those characters, and the dynamics, to get a sense of who they are, and what’s in that world, so you’re not just diving right into relationships that you might not understand,” he said. (Ya think?)
Fox
House costars Omar Epps, Jennifer Morrison, and Jesse Spencer will be back, but "They'll have changed and be in different capacities," said Executive Producer Katie Jacobs. Joining the show in recurring roles will be Olivia Wilde, Kal Penn, Peter Jacobson, Anne Dudek and Edi Gathegi. "Over the first bunch of episodes, [House] will call in all the candidates,"Jacobs said. 'And we're gonna see who survives. We're gonna play a House version of Survivor.” (In other words, they’ll see how contract negotiations play out.)
The CW
The only real interesting drama for the net-let (besides its bid for survival) are the dramas themselves. The network is getting some major buzz for new shows Reaper, Aliens in America, Gossip Girl and Life is Wild. Reaper is about a guy who learns that his parents once sold his soul to the devil and is now charged by Satan to capture demons that have escaped from hell. Aliens in America is about a 16-year-old nerd in a small Midwestern town who finds a new friend when his family inadvertently takes in a Pakistani Muslim exchange student.
The CW's other two new scripted shows, Gossip Girl and Life is Wild, were also widely discussed. Gossip Girl has drawn criticism about its depiction of teenagers drinking, doing drugs and having sex. Ostroff appeared unperturbed, insisting that shows like Gossip, America’s Next Top Model, and The Pussycat Dolls, have “a sense of humor about them” and thus are not presenting bad role models for young women. Conversely, Life is Wild, about a veterinarian and his family who relocate to South Africa, seems poised to fill the family viewing void left by the departure of the long-running hit 7th Heaven. Stephanie Niznik stars – long live Everwood's Nina Feeney!
NBC
New President Ben Silverman charmed the audience and announced that Jerry Seinfeld will appear on the season premiere of 30 Rock, Isaiah Washington has been added to the cast of Bionic Woman, the next edition of The Apprentice (yes, it’s coming back) will feature celebrities from the worlds of sports and entertainment, and the network is developing a new one-hour comedy from veteran producer Norman Lear.
CBS
The new Jericho episodes will be "lean and mean" according to Executive Producer Carol Barbee, adding that Gerald McRaney's character was always meant to die. "It may've happened a little sooner than we had planned," says Barbee, "but that's just where the story was going." All of the cliff-hangers from last season "will be paid off" by the end of the season premiere, and the Season 2 story will focus primarily on Hawkins and Jake's mission to save the world. Plus news for Jake-Heather fans: Barbee said that "Heather comes back to town to find Jake and Emily together. And she gets a possible new love interest. But there's still a pull between her and Jake that ends up working into the story."
Can’t wait for Fall!
