Posted Oct 12th 2008 11:52PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Desperate Housewives, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E03) "This guy is up to something." - McCluskey about Dave
There were much better lines said in this week's episode than the one I just put above (more on those lines later). However, what McCluskey said is what has been interesting me the most since the
season premiere: what is Dave really up to. We get that he doesn't like McCluskey at all and that he is trying to befriend everyone on Wisteria Lane. But what is his ultimate game plan? Who is he really after and why? These questions, and the fact that Dave is so creepy and well played by actor
Neal McDonough, help keep me glued to my TV during
Desperate Housewives and make me think that Dave's storyline may turn out to be as good as, if not better, than Katherine's storyline last season.
Continue reading Desperate Housewives: Kids Ain't Like Everybody Else
Posted Oct 6th 2008 5:06PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Desperate Housewives, Casting, Reality-Free
You know that scene in the movie
When Harry Met Sally, when Meg Ryan is in a New York deli and simulates having an orgasm? Then Estelle Reiner looks over and says to the waiter, "I'll have what she's having."?
Well, that's how a lot of actors in Hollywood must be feeling about actor Steven Weber -- "I'll have what he's having!" -- because he's been on a hot streak going from role to role to role, TV series to TV series.
The latest is his landing a juicy part on Desperate Housewives.
The former
Wings star will be playing Julie's lover, her college professor who's a serial monogamist, having been married three times. Susan, reportedly, is going to freak out about her daughter getting serious with a guy who's old enough to be her father.
This role is being slated for just one episode, so far, but you never know. He could turn out to be Susan's son-in-law down the road.
Continue reading Steven Weber gets ANOTHER role; this time it's Desperate Housewives
Posted Oct 6th 2008 9:00AM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: OpEd, Desperate Housewives, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E02) "I think I just heard the milk go bad." - Andrew to Bree and OrsonThat line Andrew said to escape an uncomfortable situation was funny but not that important in the overall episode. However, many
Desperate Housewives characters could have said it this week as all of them found themselves in situations they would have preferred not to be in.
Susan had to face the fact that the men in her life met one another. Gaby tried to maintain her social status but ended up being the laugh of the party (well, Carlos was). An overworked and stressed Bree had to cook for a neglected and fed up Orson. McCluskey had to apologize the Edie in order to get her cat back. While Lynette signed a breaking up email with the words "Love, Mom." Ouch!
Continue reading Desperate Housewives: We're So Happy You're So Happy
Posted Sep 30th 2008 2:01PM by Kelly Woo
Filed under: Desperate Housewives, ER, House, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Prison Break, The Office, TV Squad Lists, Casting, Reality-Free
The genius that was Amy Ryan's Holly beatboxing on
The Office last week got me thinking about other cast additions that have made shows better.
The first that came to mind was actually another Amy Ryan role -- Beadie on season two of
The Wire. It took awhile for me to get into the whole dockworkers storyline, but it was Beadie that helped me through.
If a show plans to stay on air for awhile, it needs fresh blood -- but the process of introducing new characters isn't easy (witness how reviled Maya was on
Heroes). The best new additions combine great actors with well-written characters.
Here are seven other (fairly recent) new characters that succeeded.
Continue reading Seven new characters that worked
Posted Sep 29th 2008 1:01AM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: OpEd, Desperate Housewives, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E01) "She's back!" - Lynette about EdieEven if most of the
Desperate Housewives fans knew well in advance that there would be a five-year jump in the season finale, many were left wondering what the hell would happen next. One of the questions
Desperate Housewives fans wanted answered most was what made Susan and Mike divorce. Luckily for fans, we've got a pretty good idea what broke Susan and Mike up in this week's season premiere.
Continue reading Desperate Housewives: You're Gonna Love Tomorrow (season premiere)
Posted Sep 13th 2008 11:01AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Desperate Housewives, Casting, Reality-Free
Here's some casting news that should thrill TV fans:
Lily Tomlin has been cast on Desperate Housewives as Mrs. McCluskey's sister. The comic actress, a multiple Emmy award winner (not to mention a couple of Tonys and a Grammy), has been cast in a recurring role, fleshing out Kathryn Joosten's Emmy-nominated role as the nosy neighbor across the street from Lynette who's occasionally babysat for the Scavo kids. At least when they were still kids, cause now
the show's jumped ahead five years, remember?
Writer
Marc Cherry has got to be licking his chops to write for Tomlin. She's the kind of actress that can bring unique characters immediately to life. As a comic, using her own imagination and the words -- often -- of collaborator Jane Wagner, Lily's been legendary with what she can do.
In her early career, there were Edith Ann, the bratty five-year-old, and Ernestine, the telephone operator (when the phone company still had operators!). On stage in
The Search For Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, a one-woman show, she brilliantly created numerous characters.
Continue reading Desperate Housewives snags Lily Tomlin
Posted Aug 21st 2008 10:20AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Desperate Housewives, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Entourage, Brothers and Sisters, Reality-Free
The writing partners behind
Legally Blonde,
Ella Enchanted, and
The House Bunny, opening in theaters tomorrow, have inked a deal with
ABC Studios for a series about something they're familiar with -- them.
Screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith have
sold a script about their crazy creative process, which, apparently, involves plenty of champagne and therapy, according to an
L.A. Times column about the pair. ABC Studios took notice of the column and approached the duo about spinning a show out of it.
Now ABC Studios has the script and is developing a series about what it calls "their friendship, partnership, and (mis)adventures in Hollywood," reports
The Hollywood Reporter. If it's a go, Lutz and Smith will pen the pilot and stay on as consulting producers.
Continue reading House Bunny scribes ink ABC deal - I need a cool creative process, too
Posted Aug 5th 2008 1:20PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Industry, Programming, Boston Legal, CSI, Desperate Housewives, ER, House, Law and Order, Rescue Me, The Shield, The Simpsons, Smallville, Grey's Anatomy, Family Guy, Entourage, Prison Break, My Name Is Earl, Bones, Supernatural, Numb3rs, Criminal Minds, How I Met Your Mother, King of the Hill, The Office, Dancing With The Stars, 30 Rock, Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters, NCIS, Damages, Pushing Daisies, Chuck, Private Practice, Life, Dirty Sexy Money, Samantha Who?, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Lipstick Jungle, Eli Stone, Reality-Free, Gossip Girl
It's coming. The table is set, the players are on the field, the sails are raised, and the pretty maids are all in a row. Of course, I speak of the 2008-09 television schedule. In just a few short weeks viewers will be able to dine on a number of favorite and new dishes that are being served by the networks as well as the increasing number of cable channels who are delving into original programming.
While other fall seasons have come and gone with nary a whimper, this season may be different. Due to the prolonged Writers Strike many shows ended their seasons quite early. Programs like Life, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, and Heroes haven't aired original episodes since the end of 2007. Heck, there hasn't been a new episode of The Shield since June of last year! So, the beginning of the 2008-09 season will be a second chance for some of these shows, particularly the ones that premiered last season, to show their worth to fans and the networks.
Continue reading TV Squad presents the 2008-09 fall schedule
Posted Jul 18th 2008 11:47AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Industry, Desperate Housewives, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters, TCA Press Tour, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Reality-Free
I wanted to wait a bit before I posted about the ABC showrunner panel, because a) I already posted about the "news" from
Shonda Rhimes about Katherine Heigl's statements, and b) I wanted to think about why these panels seem to be so much more informative than the individual show panels?
We'll get to that more later. On the panel were Rhimes (
Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice), Marc Cherry (
Desperate Housewives), Silvio Horta
(Ugly Betty), Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse
(Lost), and Greg Berlanti (seemingly the rest of ABC's schedule). As you'd expect, Rhimes got the Heigl questions, Lindelof and Cuse got the most esoteric questions, and Chery made the most jokes. The funniest line, though, came from Horta.
Continue reading ABC show-runner panel: Heigl, Lost's endpoint, and musical theater - TCA Report
Posted Jul 18th 2008 10:34AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Industry, Desperate Housewives, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free
Thanks to Marc Cherry and Shonda Rhimes, the ABC show-runner panel was a good way to start the afternoon. Unfortunately, things went downhill from there, as the panels for
Dirty Sexy Money, Private Practice, and Desperate Housewives were surprisingly dull, especially considering the fact that Cherry and Rhimes returned for the
DH and
Practice panels, respectively.
Even something Cherry said that seemed like it would be news -- that he's going to end
DH after the seventh season -- turned out to be old hat, as he
announced the very same thing at the Winter 2007 tour. "Yeah, I've made the decision that after seven years, I will probably keel over in a hump and die," he said. "I love my baby, you know. I love working with these gals, but the idea of letting anyone else take the show from me kind of makes me sad and sick to my stomach."
Continue reading Desperate Housewives panel: Five years older, and surprisingly dull - TCA Report
Posted Jul 16th 2008 4:28PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Desperate Housewives, Reality-Free
Last season's
Desperate Housewives' finale was pretty much a game changer. The denizens of Wisteria Lane jumped five years into the future and into completely different lives. Just to recap: Gaby (Eva Longoria Parker) is a mom, Bree (Marcia Cross) is the new Martha Stewart and is back with Orson (Kyle MacLachlan), Lynette's (Felicity Huffman) sons are juvenile delinquents, Susan (Teri Hatcher) has a new man and Edie (Nicolette Sheridan) is nowhere to be found. So basically things are a little ... different.
Executive producers Bob Daily and Sabrina Wind discuss just how different life on Wisteria Lane is going to be this season.
Daily says that the five year jump has allowed them to wipe the slate clean, "We keep talking about this first episode likes it's another pilot. We're starting over and each woman has a new drive now." For more information on what to expect on
Desperate Housewives this season, follow me after the jump.
WARNING: SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMPContinue reading Producers dish Desperate secrets
Posted Jul 16th 2008 12:26PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Desperate Housewives, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Haircuts on TV shows are often a very big deal. Remember when Keri Russell had the audacity to cut her long, curl mane on
Felicity? Some fans never forgave her or the character!
Well, be prepared for another cut to your psyche,
Desperate Housewives' devotees. Eva Longoria Parker has
cut her hair for the upcoming sixth season of the show. Unlike Keri, however, Eva's cut was done with the blessing of the producers.
As you can see, it's a very cute 'doo; not too blunt or pixie-ish. It's quite stylish and flattering. The idea is that with the five-year time jump that we saw in the finale last season, Gaby doesn't have the time or inclination to care for her long, flowing locks. (If you've ever had long, full hair like hers, you know what I'm talking about!)
Continue reading Desperate Housewife gets trimmed ... her hair, that is
Posted Jul 14th 2008 7:01PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Industry, Desperate Housewives, ER, Rescue Me, Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters, Reality-Free
Including gay characters on your TV show is good, unless it's two lesbians who fall in love with a straight man, as they do in a storyline on
New Amsterdam. FOX learned that the hard way when they received a failing grade from GLAAD (The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) on their
second annual GLAAD Network Responsibility Index. The index measures the "quantity, quality and diversity of images of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people on television."
Even though GLAAD gave FOX a failing grade, the network's cable counterpart, FX, received top honors for cable channels. The advocacy group praised them for including the most original programming that featured members LGBT community. Special notice was given to
Nip/Tuck, which had a gay, lesbian, or bisexual character in every episode.
Rescue Me's commitment ceremony storyline was also viewed favorably by the group.
Continue reading GLAAD praises ABC and FX, but gives NBC and FOX the big fail
Posted Jul 14th 2008 6:22PM by Kelly Woo
Filed under: Desperate Housewives, Interviews, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Desperate Housewives fans had a lot of questions after last season's shocking fast-forward finale (what the *$#@ happened to Mike, for one). Now, AOL TV is gathering those questions and will pose them to stars Felicity Huffman and Doug Savant as part of its upcoming "Outside the Box" video interview series.
In the season finale, Lynette and Tom sent his trouble daughter, Kayla, packing after she'd pushed their hell-raising sons into starting fires, jumping off roofs, etc. Can we expect to see a teenaged Kayla return to Wisteria Lane with a vengeance? This is your chance to ask Huffman and Savant.
Submit your questions in the comments below by Tuesday, July 15 and be sure to include your first name and city/state.
Posted Jul 7th 2008 1:20PM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Desperate Housewives, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
As if it wasn't obvious from the last moments of the
Desperate Housewives season finale... You may remember Susan kissing another man during the show's highly anticipated
flash forward. And
James Denton told People that Mike and Susan are definitely split up. However, we're not losing James Denton from ABC's hit show altogether. "I'm not sure exactly in what capacity. Marc Cherry is being a little cagey. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. But I will certainly be on the show. It's a relief to me, trust me," the 45-year-old actor told
People. What's with that last bit about the new storyline being a "relief"?
Continue reading Housewives: Mike and Susan are definitely split
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The TV characters you can (or can't) trust with your money
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