Channel Surfing: 7.11.06
"Battlestar Galactica" Sets Course for October Launch of Season Three
Sci-Fi has announced a premiere date for the third season of its hit drama, Battlestar Galactica, according to a report filed by The Futon Critic. The third season premiere is set for Friday, October 6th at 10 pm ET/PT. Like its second season BSG's third season will be broken into two sections, with Season 3.0 airing ten episodes through December 8th; Season 3.5 will air sometime in 2007 with an additional 10 installments.
I don't know about you, but BSG has become appointment television for me. If you weren't lucky enough to snag an Emmy screener set containing all of Season 2.0 and 2.5, fret not. Battlestar Galactica Season 2.5 is set to be released on DVD on September 19th, leaving you plenty of time to catch up on the drama and wacky antics of Apollo, Starbuck, Roslin, Adama, and that duplicitous weasel Gaius Baltar.
And after that cliffhanger ending, I'm on pins and needles to to see what's going to happen next.
Did "Lost" Producers Commit "Emmy Suicide"?
Tom O'Neil of the Los Angeles Times' Gold Derby has a rather, er, insightful piece about why Lost and Desperate Housewives failed to receive Emmy nominations for best drama and comedy respectively last week, blaming the series' producers for "committing Emmy suicide" by submitting unsuitable episodes for review.
I've placed the salient bits below regarding the mistakes that Lost's producers made in selecting the "Man of Science, Main of Faith" episode for Emmy review, but I can't help but disagree with O'Neill's assessment that this past season of Desperate Housewives "had another superb season." (I had to tune out halfway through the season.)
I can't really imagine that the show's producers "pulled any old thing out of a barrel." And, while I too was a bit baffled by the snub, I can't totally place all of the blame on Lost's producers; the labyrinthine plots of the show don't exactly make it easy for non-viewers to jump in, especially when those same viewers are watching episodes of easy-to-digest procedural shows. It's really apples and oranges. Would the series have had a better shot with "The Other 48 Days"? Who can say? Yes, it's more of a complete story in a single episode, but it also doesn't feature the series' main cast and isn't really indicative of the season as a whole. We'll never know whether any episode would have clinched a nomination.
But to say that the show's producers lazily grabbed the second season premiere episode because they were that convinced that they'd get a nomination? It doesn't take a man of science or a man of faith to find fault with that logic.
Sci-Fi Pulse Will Let Viewers Decide Future of Animated Series
Many a comic book reader is familiar with that interactive publishing mandate "You decide!", but now television viewers are getting the chance to directly affect the future of a series.
While Sci-Fi's animated series, Amazing Screw-On Head (based on the comic book by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola) won't premiere on the network until July 27th, visitors to Sci-Fi's online broadband destination Sci-Fi Pulse will be able to watch the pilot in its entirety beginning this Thursday.
Additionally, Sci-Fi Pulse visitors who watch the series' pilot, which features the voices of Paul Giamatti, David Hyde Pierce, Patton Oswalt, Mindy Sterling, and Molly Shannon, will be able to answer an online questionnaire, the answers from which to help the cable network to decide whether it should pick up the Amazing Screw-On Head pilot to series.
The animated series follows the exploits of Screw-On Head, a robotic hero with the ability to, well, screw his head onto a number of bodies and fight evil. I don't know about you, but I am so there.
Blood "Brothers"?
ABC's upcoming fall drama Brothers & Sisters has recast two members of the Walker family.
As previously announced, Betty Buckley and Jonathan LaPaglia have left the series, which stars Calista Flockhart and follows the secrets and lies of a wealthy Californian family. In a surprise casting coup, Sally Field has joined the cast, replacing Buckley as the Walker family matriarch. (We like you, Sally, we really do!) Meanwhile, Matthew Rhys will step in to fill LaPaglia's shoes.
With family like this, as they say...
What's On Tonight
8 pm: Big Brother: All-Stars (CBS); Fear Factor (NBC); Gilmore Girls (WB); According to Jim/According to Jim (ABC); The Simpsons/Malcolm in the Middle (FOX); Veronica Mars(UPN)
9 pm: Rock Star: Supernova (CBS); Last Comic Standing (NBC); Gilmore Girls (WB); The Simpsons/Malcolm in the Middle (FOX); Primetime (9-11 pm; ABC); Veronica Mars (UPN)
10 pm: 48 Hours Mystery (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC)
What I'll Be Watching
9 pm: Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List on Bravo.
Sure we've learned the sordid little secrets behind the D-List marriage, but let's pretend we're blissfully ignorant of what's really going on here. In tonight's episode, Kathy gets a new puppy but experiences some problems with her new bundle of joy and is asked by the Learning Annex to teach a class. What, Donald Trump was busy?
Sci-Fi has announced a premiere date for the third season of its hit drama, Battlestar Galactica, according to a report filed by The Futon Critic. The third season premiere is set for Friday, October 6th at 10 pm ET/PT. Like its second season BSG's third season will be broken into two sections, with Season 3.0 airing ten episodes through December 8th; Season 3.5 will air sometime in 2007 with an additional 10 installments.I don't know about you, but BSG has become appointment television for me. If you weren't lucky enough to snag an Emmy screener set containing all of Season 2.0 and 2.5, fret not. Battlestar Galactica Season 2.5 is set to be released on DVD on September 19th, leaving you plenty of time to catch up on the drama and wacky antics of Apollo, Starbuck, Roslin, Adama, and that duplicitous weasel Gaius Baltar.
And after that cliffhanger ending, I'm on pins and needles to to see what's going to happen next.
Did "Lost" Producers Commit "Emmy Suicide"?
Tom O'Neil of the Los Angeles Times' Gold Derby has a rather, er, insightful piece about why Lost and Desperate Housewives failed to receive Emmy nominations for best drama and comedy respectively last week, blaming the series' producers for "committing Emmy suicide" by submitting unsuitable episodes for review.I've placed the salient bits below regarding the mistakes that Lost's producers made in selecting the "Man of Science, Main of Faith" episode for Emmy review, but I can't help but disagree with O'Neill's assessment that this past season of Desperate Housewives "had another superb season." (I had to tune out halfway through the season.)
"If you saw what sample episodes the producers of Lost and Desperate Housewives submitted to the Emmy judging panels as examples of their "best" work from this past TV season, you'd not only know why their shows got snubbed, but you'd wonder about their sanity or sobriety. [...]More than a little harsh, no?The producers of Lost got their comeuppance for failing to take the Emmy race seriously. Did they really believe they'd impress voters with that "Man of Science, Man of Faith" episode? There's nothing to it and it doesn't make sense. A dog runs away into the jungle at night and a couple of islanders go looking for it. Whoopdeedoo. Meantime, a few other islanders blow the lid off a hatch in the jungle floor and we see partial glimpses of a man living in a modern-style apartment down below. Huh? That's it. That's the whole episode. I repeat: Huh?
Why didn't producers submit the one about the Tailies, ("The Other 48 Days"), which had a full story arc and was dramatically compelling? That would've cinched them a bid for best drama series.
The reason: they didn't think about it. Having won last year, they assumed they'd be nominated again, so they pulled a John Goodman and just pulled any old thing out of a barrel, they got snubbed, and now they blame Emmy voters for not hailing the brilliance of that weird, unintelligible "Man of Science.""
I can't really imagine that the show's producers "pulled any old thing out of a barrel." And, while I too was a bit baffled by the snub, I can't totally place all of the blame on Lost's producers; the labyrinthine plots of the show don't exactly make it easy for non-viewers to jump in, especially when those same viewers are watching episodes of easy-to-digest procedural shows. It's really apples and oranges. Would the series have had a better shot with "The Other 48 Days"? Who can say? Yes, it's more of a complete story in a single episode, but it also doesn't feature the series' main cast and isn't really indicative of the season as a whole. We'll never know whether any episode would have clinched a nomination.
But to say that the show's producers lazily grabbed the second season premiere episode because they were that convinced that they'd get a nomination? It doesn't take a man of science or a man of faith to find fault with that logic.
Sci-Fi Pulse Will Let Viewers Decide Future of Animated Series
Many a comic book reader is familiar with that interactive publishing mandate "You decide!", but now television viewers are getting the chance to directly affect the future of a series.While Sci-Fi's animated series, Amazing Screw-On Head (based on the comic book by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola) won't premiere on the network until July 27th, visitors to Sci-Fi's online broadband destination Sci-Fi Pulse will be able to watch the pilot in its entirety beginning this Thursday.
Additionally, Sci-Fi Pulse visitors who watch the series' pilot, which features the voices of Paul Giamatti, David Hyde Pierce, Patton Oswalt, Mindy Sterling, and Molly Shannon, will be able to answer an online questionnaire, the answers from which to help the cable network to decide whether it should pick up the Amazing Screw-On Head pilot to series.
The animated series follows the exploits of Screw-On Head, a robotic hero with the ability to, well, screw his head onto a number of bodies and fight evil. I don't know about you, but I am so there.
Blood "Brothers"?
ABC's upcoming fall drama Brothers & Sisters has recast two members of the Walker family.
As previously announced, Betty Buckley and Jonathan LaPaglia have left the series, which stars Calista Flockhart and follows the secrets and lies of a wealthy Californian family. In a surprise casting coup, Sally Field has joined the cast, replacing Buckley as the Walker family matriarch. (We like you, Sally, we really do!) Meanwhile, Matthew Rhys will step in to fill LaPaglia's shoes.
With family like this, as they say...
What's On Tonight
8 pm: Big Brother: All-Stars (CBS); Fear Factor (NBC); Gilmore Girls (WB); According to Jim/According to Jim (ABC); The Simpsons/Malcolm in the Middle (FOX); Veronica Mars(UPN)
9 pm: Rock Star: Supernova (CBS); Last Comic Standing (NBC); Gilmore Girls (WB); The Simpsons/Malcolm in the Middle (FOX); Primetime (9-11 pm; ABC); Veronica Mars (UPN)
10 pm: 48 Hours Mystery (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC)
What I'll Be Watching
9 pm: Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List on Bravo.
Sure we've learned the sordid little secrets behind the D-List marriage, but let's pretend we're blissfully ignorant of what's really going on here. In tonight's episode, Kathy gets a new puppy but experiences some problems with her new bundle of joy and is asked by the Learning Annex to teach a class. What, Donald Trump was busy?