TV with MeeVee

"Sons of Anarchy": A motorcycle gang is coming to your house

The one piece of swag that I really wanted at press tour never existed - something with the "Sons of Anarchy" colors. Maybe the creators of the new series, debuting Sept. 3 on FX, are trying to emulate a real gang in demanding respect for their colors, rather than hand out t-shirts to wimps like TV critics. Certainly there are a few guarded looks and much vagueness when they about the real gang that allowed them to hang around and do research. And some of the producers themselves look tough. One of them, John Linson, never took off his mirrored shades and hardly said more than two words during the session, sitting with his arms folded like a biker at a big sitdown. Could just be the usual Hollywood smoke and mirrors, but hey, I'm not going to be the one to ask.

To quote FX head honcho John Landgraf, "At its core, “Sons of Anarchy” is a generational  family drama. It’s also a crime drama, and it’s also  laced with social commentary." The cast includes sometime pretty boy Charlie Hunnam as Jax Teller, the heir to the SAMCRO throne; Katey Sagal as Gemma Teller, the matriarch of the family; and Ron Perlman as Clay Morrow, the cofounder and president of SAMCRO, the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original." (Sagal is also married to producer Kurt Sutter.)

A lot of other questions did get asked during the press tour session, including one brilliant one by me to Hunnam, and an edited Q'n'A follows. I'll have a review next week...

Sutter on the origin of the idea: I had lunch with John Linson and  Art Linson two years ago. And, you know, John had this  notion about doing a family drama set in the world of  outlaw motorcycle clubs. What John gave me was — you  know, he was completely immersed in the culture,  well-versed in the area. He had friends and  associates who were living the life, and what he  offered me was a front-row seat. And I wouldn’t –  you know, I didn’t want to get involved with anything that I felt I couldn’t do authentically. And, you  know, I can’t mention any organizations, but one of  these organizations sort of opened their doors to me,  and I got to see it firsthand, you know. And it was — it’s a fascinating culture. And the thing that attracted me to the world and these guys, I think, was — you know, I had no doubt that they were dangerous cats, you know. But there was this amazing camaraderie. There was this amazing sort of familial  “I’d kill for my brother” bond that all of them had  that was just somewhat endearing. And that, juxtaposed against the lifestyle, just was really sort  of fascinating material.

From that, I began  to do some academic research on the world and some of these clubs and really — you know, the notion that  most of these clubs really began as something else. They began as fraternities, of brotherhoods of guys, just most of them war veterans getting together to blow off steam. And in a very short period of time, a lot of these clubs morphed into essentially organized crime syndicates. And I thought that was such an epic arc that happened. And my — the core of the idea for the drama was I thought, you know, how does that guy, that first guy who designed the patch, put on the cut, and said, “Hey, let’s go out and ride motorcycles, have a few beers, and kick some ass” — how does that guy feel about eventually what the club became? And does he have regret? Does he have remorse? Would he feel the need to change it? And at that point, the idea and the club and the world is much bigger than the individual. And that’s sort of the idea that the drama grew from.

And then I imposed the sort of  Hamlet archetype on top of that.

From the mean streets of Baltimore to "90210?"

Actors have to play all kinds of characters on all kinds of shows. Just look at the categories for this item and you'll see what a leap Tristan Wilds is taking.

Wilds was terrific as the troubled and complex street kid Michael on HBO's gritty "The Wire." Now he's playing the fresh prince of the new "90210," pretty much the only black face on the CW series, playing Dixon, the adopted son of Lori Loughlin and Rob Estes. (There are Iranian and Indian characters, as noted in the Times this morning in a story about TV diversity.)

I wish him well, but in a just world, "The Wire" would have ten times the audience of "90210." Still here's an interview with the upwardly mobile young actor.

Passing the morning links baton

• James Cromwell segues from "24" to "My Own Worst Enemy."
• Sanjaya and his fauxhawk get a lucrative commercial.
• Goodbye "Stargate: Atlantis," hello "Stargate: Universe."
• And why "Atlantis" sank.
• SoapNet is running a marathon of the original "90210" on Labor Day, one day before CW unveils the new verison. Frankly, when they said they weren't sending screeners to critics, I lost interest.
• John Krasinski as Michael Phelps? Interesting item, but Kathy, that graphic is making me seasick.
• An Emmy show worth watching.

Letting Margaret Cho Be Margaret Cho on "The Cho Show"

Following in the pitter-patting little sarcastic gay-loving footsteps of D-Lister Kathy Griffin, Margaret Cho comes to cable tonight with VH1's "The Cho Show." It's a semi-realistic, semi-fakey semi-scripted look at her life on- and off-camera as a member of the Hollywood community who's not yet so self-important that she doesn't see the opportunity for biting humor at the expense of herself and everyone else.

Most people who'll read this are familiar with the Cho story, that of a sexually open-minded young Korean-American comedian wrestling with her ethnic identity who got sucked into the maw of the sitcom machine at ABC and spit out with a whole new set of issues. Since then she's been wreaking comic havoc and accumulating new fans and tattoos while working on those issues. Now she returns to TV with a new sidekick - her assistant Selene Luna - and trailed as ever by her loving if slightly perplexed parents. They all turned up at the TCA press tour a few weeks ago to talk about it.

Question: Margaret, take us back. How bad was it working under network sitcom rules and –

Cho: Oh, it was unbelievable. And I remember attending the TCA 15 years ago and how hard it was for us, how hard it was to represent a show that I had to work on, that I had so many problems with. And in this show, I’m so proud and so excited. At that time, we brought the first Asian-American family on television.
It was like a really very ground-breaking thing, a very difficult thing, and, you know, I’m very proud now to
bring the second Asian-American family to television. I’m actually #1 and #2. So that’s an achievement.
It was very difficult, and one of the things that I remembered was after I did my first screen test, one
executive freaked out and said, please never, ever, ever show your stomach in public ever again. Never. So
that’s why I’m like naked in the show all the time, as you’ll see.

But it’s a very — it’s very different. It’s very different. Television has changed a lot, and also it’s wonderful to be working with VH1, who have been incredible in really allowing us to be ourselves, which is a major problem in television when you work with an artist and you try to create a show. You make a show
about them, they often do the wrong thing and you try to create them and make them into something else. But VH1 actually allowed us to be ourselves, which is really a miracle, and that’s why this show is so exciting.

Morning Olympics-Free Linkwad

• "Gossip Girl's'" Blake Lively and her "Traveling Pants" co-star "Ugly Betty's" America Ferrera smooth over that talk-show thing. Uh huh.
• Darryl from "The Office" makes a deal with prosecutors in real life.
• Ratings for "Mad Men" shrank a little more this weekend.
• Doesn't the new project from David Duchovny and Tea Leoni's company sound a lot like "Z Rock" on IFC?
• "The Bachelor" is now taking sloppy seconds, apparently.

Let's Go To "Architecture School"

We don't do much with documentaries around here, but tonight the Sundance Channel debuts "Architecture School," which looks at a Tulane University class assigned to design houses for a portion of New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina. You can read the New York Times review here; Barnhart also weighed in here. I thought I'd bring you a chunk of the press tour interview with the people who made the show...

Question: Was there any impact at all in the decision-making about the design of this house based on the fact that the two houses that the program had already built in this neighborhood were so comparatively modern and, you know, I credit the episodes I saw because they did have people from the neighborhood saying that that is a problem for them. But did that factor at all into the aesthetic decisions made about this project's design?

Tulane Prof. Byron Mouton: In studio with the students, we constantly talk about a need to introduce progressive strategies to a city that's already authentically old, and so we try to steer away from replication of what's there because there's already so much old fabric that just needs to be repaired first. So I do tend to steer them away from producing familiar schemes. We always want to look forward. In reference to the first two strategies, they were steppingstones to the third house. We were very diplomatic with the first house. We tried to develop a form that was somewhat familiar. A little bit of greater number referenced better some of the common types and styles of the region. The second house did that less. The third house was a step further.

Former Tulane Prof. Reed Kroloff: I think actually if you — as you watch the episodes of the show when they come out, and if you had an opportunity at some point to speak to the people in the neighborhood, particularly the first house and now the third, it's remarkable how the neighborhood ultimately comes to embrace something that at first seems somewhat alien to them. New Orleans is a city built on tradition, and when you start to introduce changes to that or new elements, it can be difficult for people who spent their whole life there to accept it on an initial viewing. But later on they become fiercely
protective.

Valerie Bertinelli lands TBS sitcom

I dunno what the deal is with the '80s sitcoms today. First "The Golden Girls" and now "One Day At A Time" (right). What's next, the f*ing "Ropers"?

Valerie Bertinelli, the former "ODAAT" cutie and former Mrs. Eddie Van Halen, has signed to star in a TBS sitcom pilot for producer Dave Caplan, who's behind the cabler's very successful "Bill Engvall Show."

Bertinelli will play a single mom of two who's also trying to run a business - pretty much the same setup as "ODAAT" except this time Bertinelli will be the mom instead of the adorable teen. The business is (gulp) a lumberyard, and Bertinelli's character is single because her husband walked out. In the old days, getting a pilot was just the first step, but the way business is conducted now, this has at least a 50/50 shot to make it to air. No word yet on scheduling or other casting.

Bertinelli's other credits include "Touched By An Angel," "Sydney," an autobiography, and several TV movies that make me want to claw my eyes out.

Olympics giveth, Blanche and Sophia taketh away

The Beijing Olympics continue to be golden for NBC. While the numbers are off from some of their Michael Phelps-induced highs, 25.4 million on a Monday night is still pretty dang good. And NBC continues to kick the crap out of the opposition, sorta like the USA basketball team. It's going so well for the peacock, in fact, that the experts are predicting heavy bidding wars for the next games, when the bidding opens in a few months. But the one thing that even the Olympics can't do is bring back the heyday of the big three networks, when "The Golden Girls" set a weekend ratings record that not even Phelps can break.

It's Hoff's Space. We just live in it.

The magnificence that is David Hasselhoff already had a significant cyber presence with davidhasselhoff.com, where the star of "Knightrider," "Baywatch" and "America's Got Talent" interacts with fans and sells posters like the beauty at right. But now the site includes a new "social network" called HoffSpace. Supposedly it already has 13,000-plus members! The end is near!

I learned of the site from the fine folks over at TV Squad, who explain thusly:

Why did Hasselhoff decide to start a personal social networking site? Here's his explanation:

"I realized that while two people from two entirely different countries and backgrounds may seem to have nothing in common, the only thing they might have in common is me... So I decided to start a network where people from across the world might come together and get a conversation started over me."

Alrighty then.

A.M. Linkage

• Among the spoilers in Ask Ausiello is a promise that the season premiere of "Terminator" will inspire "urinalphobia." Now where did I put that DVD...
• TV Guide Online also features an hilarious Larry King "Jeer" ...
• TV Addict picks 10 faces to watch this fall...
• Barnhart offers up all the deets on the "Firefly" Blu-Ray set...
• Thinking about the possibility of a "Veronica Mars" movie...
• And thinking about it some more...
• Mulling the fourth season of "Prison Break"...
• I don't usually link to DHD's more insidery Hollywood stuff, but this item includes a line about swimming in the blood of laid-off employees, and the comments are hilariously bitchy...

Emmys pick most memorable TV moments. Or do they?

During the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards telecast on ABC Sept. 21, the TV Academy will reveal the "most memorable moments" in scripted TV history, as chosen by online voters from 20 drama moments and 20 comedy moments picked by the TV Academy. Mind you, this leaves out most of your truly dramatic television moments, which were news events - man walking on the moon, the Challenger disaster, 9/11, etc. But it does make for a fun parlor game, discussing which moments do and don't deserve to be on the list, and which ones they missed.

Drama contenders include a deathbed chat from "Brian's Song," J.R. getting shot by an unseen assailant on "Dallas," and Buffy sacrificing herself to save the world (above) on "Buffy The Vampire Slayer." There are also scenes from "Twilight Zone," "Roots," "The Fugitive" and "The Waltons," plus a funny moment from one of the best "Sopranos" episodes, "Pine Barrens" (left; I expect they'll bleep Tony screaming "Fuck!" at his cell phone) and the explosive ending of a "Grey's Anatomy."

I wouldn't have thought of "Grey's," but since they put "Buffy" in there, I'll call it a tie. The mistakes here include choosing a later "Buffy" moment - we all know the first big kiss with Angel was the most memorable moment in the Buffyverse. Choosing a time-travel moment from "Star Trek," instead of a moment on the bridge of the Enterprise, is ridiculous, even though the clip comes with the pleasure of seeing Joan Collins get flattened by a truck. And for the "X-Files" to be represented by a Mulder, Scully and Baby moment and that waaaay overdue kiss seems just lame.

In comedy, the choices include: Sammy Davis Jr. on "All in the Family" (right) - the greatest kiss in TV history!; Radar announcing Henry Blake's death on "M*A*S*H," the rare "moment" without sappy music; the surprise ending of the last "Newhart"; Chuckles' funeral on "Mary Tyler Moore Show"; "The Contest" on "Seinfeld"; "Ellen" coming out of the closet much more publicly than intended; and the hatchet gag on "The Tonight Show."

But why the hell are the Beatles on "Ed Sullivan" and the first winning moment on "American Idol" in the comedy category? (Wasn't the "Idol" moment more, um, drama?) Was this seemingly random Roseanne Roseannadanna minute really the most memorable moment in the history of "Saturday Night Live" - even without a "never mind"?(Commenter reminds me that was Emily Litela who said "Never mind. I still don't get why this RR moment was chosen, though.)

Check out the list and tell us what you think of the choices in the comments below!

Christina Applegate talks about breast cancer and surgery

"I'm going to have cute boobs 'til I'm 90, so there's that," Christina Applegate told "Good Morning America" today. The ABC star confirmed that although her breast cancer was contained to one breast, she had a double mastectomy because her mother also had the disease and the star herself has a genetic mutation linked to the disease. Tears, anger and self-pity have all been part of the aftermath, she said. She now faces a long road of reconstructive surgery, even as she gears up to relaunch her sitcom, "Samantha Who?" She's also to appear on a Sept. 5 cancer-research fund-raising special that will appear on ABC, CBS and NBC simultaneously.

Morning linky goodness

• Fred Willard making a guest appearance on "Pushing Daisies!" As a magician! With his lovely assistant played by Kerri Kinney of "Reno 911!" And more casting news.
• Rosie O'Donnell as Elaine on "Seinfeld?" Eeek. And more casting near-calamities.
• React to the "90210" No-Screeners policy.
• And more react.
• You know what we think.
• "Bones" filming in London: Boot-knocking ahead?
• The new "Amazing Race" teams include the Comic-Con treasurer. A naked bid for a little more love at the big TV confab?

"90210" is top secret

Ahahahahahahaha. CW and CBS Paramount studio won't be sending a "90210" screener to critics. Not because it sucks, they swear, but just because it's more special if no one can review it.

Their statement: "The CW and our studio partner CBS Paramount Network Television have made the strategic marketing decision not to screen '90210' for any media in advance of its premiere. We're not hiding anything . . . simply keeping a lid on 90210 until 9.02, riding the curiosity and anticipation into premiere night, and letting all our constituents see it at the same time."

Fishburne on "CSI" - Dead people and The Professor

Laurence Fishburne will join "CSI" in its ninth episode of the season, in December, a week before longtime star William Petersen departs the CBS show. It's Fishburne's first TV series stint since he played Cowboy Curtis on a few episodes of "Peewee's Playhouse" in the 1980s. CBS set up a conference call this afternoon for reporters to ask Fishburne and executive producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar about their plans. But a lot is still up in the air.

"I'm just, I'm really excited to be joining the team," Fishburne said. "Bringing new characters into such an established piece as 'CSI' requires, I think, a lot of thought and consideration. You have to consider not just the folks that work on the show but the audience and a number of things."

The producers said that Fishburne's character is not, at least immediately, taking over for Petersen's Gil Grissom. Instead Fishburne's character starts at the bottom rung of the Las Vegas crime lab, while both Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) and Nick Stokes (George Eads) have a chance at taking over the team. Don't be surprised, though, if he's running the joint before the season is over.

"His background is more than just being a college professor," said Shankar. "The character we're creating has a background as a medical doctor, as a research pathologist in fact, and for a number of reasons - the backstory's going to get revealed over the course of the season - he has been forced out of that career and has become sort of a college lecturer, sort of an itinerant college professor. And he's teaching a course in criminalistics when he gets involved in an investigation with the CSIs. Sort of the ground floor qualification is a background in science or pathology and that's what brings him in the door."

Fishburne doesn't start shooting until mid-September, and his character hasn't even got a name yet.

"We're open to suggestions," Mendelson said with a laugh.

"Our internal code name for this character is The Professor," Shankar said.

We already knew - or thought we knew - that The Professor has a dark secret. In July, CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler said that the then-uncast character would discover that he has the DNA signature of a serial killer. Shankar said that's not quite right.

"I think it was misreported a little bit in terms of this character having the genetic makeup of a serial killer. Because in reality there is no such thing," Shankar said. "What we really want to play with in a dramatic sense is a character who has been able to examine his own genetic profile to a certain extent and find certain complexes and clusters of biological facts that are associated with aggressiveness and criminal behavior and that's all it is.

"It's just one of the things that's going to lead this character to be interested in the world of violent criminals and criminalistics and forensics. It's just what draws him to it," Shankar said. "If you see within yourself certain tendencies...it lets you wonder about how these things turn into murder, how they turn into violence, how they turn into criminal behavior. And that's all it is. It's an underlying element for the character, nothing as simple as 'He's got the genes of a serial killer,' because there is no such thing."

Someone asked Fishburne if he is a "CSI" fan, and he said, "I am now!" to chuckles all around.

"To be perfectly frank, I said to Naren and Carol when we met here in New York, I felt a little stupid and embarrassed that I hadn't watched the show prior to having a meeting with them," Fishburne said. "But I'm happy to say the episodes they sent me to look at were really, really engaging and really really wonderful. And kind of dark and moody, like a lot of the work I've actually been involved in, and I thought Wow, that is cool, mmm, this'll work! So I'm excited."

Morpheus joins "CSI" (That's Laurence Fishburne to you)

As much rumored, CBS announced today that Laurence Fishburne ("The Matrix") and many more will be joining the cast of "CSI." He'll first appear in the ninth episode of the season; star William Petersen is easing himself out of the show after #10.

I'll put the entire press release after the jump, but it says, "Fishburne will play a former pathologist who is now working as an itinerant college lecturer, teaching a course in criminalistics. His focus is on understanding criminal behavior, how and why people commit acts of violence - tendencies he disturbingly sees within himself." There's a conference call with Fishburne and the producers in a few minutes, and I'll get back to you with a full report later this afternoon.

"Heroes," just for one day

NBC has released a trailer for the new season of "Heroes," and it's full of creamy heroic goodness and also some evil. You will like:

Midday links

• I like this recap of last night's "Mad Men" mainly because of one line about a sweater: "On weekends, Pete is apparently Rod Laver." Nice.
• "The Office" news: Someone on the Dunder Mifflin payroll has been busted for E and meth.
  Is there any greater waste of bandwidth than the "Big Brother" live feeds?
  The NYT likes Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show."
  I never got around to writing about "Architecture School" before its debut this weekend. Aaron did.
• No good news in the writers contract mess. But at least there's some for older writers.
• "Ugly Betty" scored at the ALMA awards.

Cloris Leachman talks trash

I wouldn't watch the Bob Saget roast on a bet, but I'm glad Comedy Central made this video of the evening's highlight available...

Latest Olympic (fake) news

• Yet another bit of Olympic fakery comes to light. I'm surprised there isn't a gold medal for lying.
• But this guy luuuuuvs NBC's Olympics coverage.
• And 40 million Americans loved watching Michael Phelps win No. 8,
• But the huge ratings are bringing a smile to network television executives everywhere. Awwww.

90210-oh: Shannen and Jennie together

Of course most of the excitement about the upcoming CW "spinoff" of "90210" has centered on the return of various cast members from the original show, bringing along all their backstage baggage from that famously contentious time. Already Tori Spelling has dropped out upon finding that she'd be paid half as much as Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth. And here's the first CW promo featuring Doherty and Garth...of course they're onscreen together for a fraction of a second...