I can’t think of any other show that’s been as misunderstood or mistreated by its network than Community. Rather than embrace the fact that they have a show with a rabidly solid fan base, NBC constantly interfered with, tinkered with and stacked the odds against our plucky gang of slackers from Greendale Community College. The show’s quality only dipped with NBC fired Dan Harmon, the show runner after season three, only to relent and hire him back after season four. I think even die-hard Community fans saw this coming with Donald Glover and Chevvy Chase leaving the show this year, but it’s still sad. “Six seasons and a movie” was a dream that will remain unrealized unless we can Kickstarter it onto another network. Continue reading NBC Cancels Community After 5 Seasons; NBC 2014-2015 Schedule Decisions.
Tag Archives: parenthood
Ron Howard’s Latest 10 Movies vs. Greatest 10 Movies
Latest vs. Greatest looks at directors, actors, actresses, screenwriters and composers to assess the state of their career as it stands. We’ll look back at the latest 10 movies the artist has done, rate them and then average them out to see where they stand today. We’ll also rank their 10 greatest movies and give them the same treatment to compare what they have been doing to their very best work. (A quick side-note: if an artist is/has been a regular on a TV show we’ll also grade the seasons individually; artists need 10 projects to qualify).
Ron Howard has been in front of or behind the camera literally his entire life. From playing Opie on The Andy Griffith Show to Richie Cunningham on Happy Days, Howard grew up in front of America. When Happy Days was past its peak, Howard appeared in George Lucas’ American Graffiti, but instead of developing ambitions of a career as a leading man, he became extremely interested in becoming a director. Continue reading Ron Howard’s Latest 10 Movies vs. Greatest 10 Movies
NBC Announces 2013 – 2014 Fall Show Premiere Dates
It seems like only yesterday that I was writing absurdly long articles speculating on pilots on what would and what would not be canceled (it was two months ago). The CW announced their return dates, but because they make me (with the exception of Arrow) giggle, I just Tweeted that one out so if you’re not following the Twitter stream, you missed out. NBC has some promising pilots and they could sure use them. The once proud peacock has fallen to fourth place among the major networks. Personally, I watch Parks & Recreation, Parenthood and I will return to Community since Dan Harmon is descending from the heavens to save us who languished in his absence. The new shows? Who knows? There’s some promising premises. Maybe we’ll get some new blood this year.
NBC has announced premiere dates for its fall programming, which will kick off on September 23rd. Briefly:
- The James Spader-led new crime drama series The Blacklist will premiere on Monday, September 23rd at 10 p.m., followed by the two-hour season premiere of The Voice.
- The second season of Chicago Fire kicks off on Tuesday, September 24th at 10 p.m.
- Revolution’s second season begins on Wednesday, September 25th in its new time slot of 8 p.m.
- The sixth season of the brilliant comedy series Parks and Recreation will kick off with a special hour-long episode on Thursday, September 26th at 8 p.m. that takes place in London, followed by back-to-back episodes of the new comedy The Michael J. Fox Show at 9 p.m.
- The swell tear-inducing drama Parenthood begins its fifth season on Thursday, September 26th in its new 10 p.m. time slot (aka the “death knell” time slot).
- Just in time for Halloween, the third season of Grimm begins on Friday, October 25th at 9 p.m., followed by the premiere of the new limited series Dracula starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers at 10 p.m.
- As previously reported, the Dan Harmon-led fifth season of Community will premiere mid-season along with season two of Hannibal.
You can click here to watch trailers for the network’s new series.
Here’s the full fall lineup for NBC:
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — June 21, 2013 — NBC has announced premiere dates for its fall schedule, which include the launch of two highly-anticipated new shows: “The Blacklist” on Sept. 23 and the series debut of “The Michael J. Fox Show” with back-to-back episodes on Sept. 26.
“The Blacklist,” starring James Spader as an international criminal who works with a rookie FBI agent in order to bring down some of the world’s most wanted, begins Monday, Sept. 23 at 10 p.m., immediately following the fifth-season two-hour premiere of “The Voice” at 8 p.m. that will reunite the four original coaches: Christina Aguilera, CeeLo Green, Adam Levine, and Blake Shelton. (All times are ET.)
“Chicago Fire” will begin its second season at 10 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24 following the Tuesday edition of “The Voice.”
On Wednesday, Sept. 25, the sophomore season of “Revolution” will begin the night in its new time period at 8 o’clock, followed by the season premiere of the 15th season of “Law & Order: SVU” at 9 p.m. in which Det. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) will be fighting for her life against a madman.
Highly-acclaimed comedy “Parks and Recreation” will launch its sixth season with an hour-long episode at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26 that takes the show to London. That will be followed by back-to-back episodes for the debut of “The Michael J. Fox Show,” starring the iconic actor as a father and husband returning to work as a news reporter in New York after a brief leave of absence to get his Parkinson’s under control.
“Parenthood,” which is beginning its fifth season this year, moves into the 10 p.m. time period on Sept 26 (immediately following “The Michael J. Fox Show”) with special guest star Ray Romano.
“Dateline NBC” will premiere with a two-hour episode Friday, Sept. 27 at 9 p.m.
The new Blair Underwood-starring action drama “Ironside” will begin its run at 10 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 2.
New first-year comedies “Welcome to the Family” (8:30 p.m.) — about the clash between two families forced to deal with the surprise pregnancy and marriage of their teenage kids — and “Sean Saves the World” (9 p.m.) — bringing Sean Hayes back to NBC as a single dad balancing his teenage daughter, opinionated mother and overbearing boss — both launch Thursday, Oct. 3
The debut for the third season of “Grimm” will begin at 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25. That will be immediately followed by the series launch of “Dracula,” starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the iconic character returning to Victorian England to seek revenge on those who doomed him to immortal hell. Appropriately, both shows will launch within a week of Halloween.
The night will be led off at 8 p.m. with “Dateline NBC,” as the news magazine will shift to its regular time slot.
And finally, “The Biggest Loser” will start its newest cycle with an hour-long telecast at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8.
Killing Time – June 6, 2013
The spring/summer TV show binge catch-up continues right along. We’re on show #4 now having gone from The Good Wife to Breaking Bad to Parenthood to Friday Night Lights; ripping through seasons. All of this catching up on shows I’ve always meant to watch has come at a good time. I’ve been feeling to burned out to read much (this means only 4 books a week or so) and I honestly just want to turn my mind off and I’ve been fortunate enough to have found four great shows in a row. FNL should keep me for another week, but then…then, I’m not sure. If KTers have suggestions, pass them along. I’ve got Amazon, Hulu and Netflix streaming so we’re ideally looking for something there.
KT milestones this week: the site passed the 8,500 hit mark, uploaded its 600th post and had its busiest week of traffic ever. I think the most surreal thing for me was when I saw one of my articles had been used as a reference in a Wikipedia entry. This heralds my arrival as a solid news source or completely undermines Wikipedia as a research tool (leaning toward the latter). Also a big thank you to whomever visited the site from the island nation of Mauritius as you were the 100th country we’ve visited (or “polluted” depending on your point of view). Watching the map fill in is one of the coolest things for me. I’ll be in the living room, check the stats, and bellow WE GOT THE UKRAINE!!! At which point, I’ll hear a mumbled, “That’s super, honey, I’m sure they’re thrilled,” from the direction of the bedroom. I’m calling out Kazakhstan. They’re the largest nation on the planet not to stop by so far. Is it the Borat thing? Are you still mad I have Sascha Cohen’s version of your national anthem on my iPod? Come on! What else do you have to do? Let the potassium mine itself for a day and bond with us in global time wasting!
Books:
And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman
Blu Ray:
Star Trek: The Next Generation Movies Box Set (cont.)
TV/HULU:
The Daily Show with John Stewart
The Colbert Report
Friday Night Lights Seasons One & Two
Song of the Week: “Submarines” by the Lumineers
Video Game:
Borderlands 2 (Level 22 Gunzerker; on chapter 13 of main quest)
Injustice: Gods Among Us (Chapter 2 of the Story; 3 STAR Labs missions)
* XBOX Live, gamertag: sleeplessdave; feel free to friend me!
Comics:
Injustice Gods Among Us Vol. 1 by Tom Taylor
Detective Comics Vol. 3: Emperor Penguin by John Layman
Thief of Thieves Vol. 2: Help Me by James Asmus, Robert Kirkman
Insufferable Vol. 1 by Mark Waid
Killing Time – May 30, 2013
Xbox One. If Microsoft’s goal in unveiling XB1 (or as we call it around the KT offices HexBox) was to send me into a profound gaming depression: mission accomplished. I used my console to play an actual game once this week. For me that’s the equivalent of a functional adult wandering nude down a freeway. E3 had better show me something or this next generation of consoles just has nothing I’m interested in so far.
KT milestones this week: the site passed the 7,000 hit mark and had big gains in South American views. I have no idea why, but thank you. I can only assume that you are either kin (oh I have kin there, thank you) or that Lista de Email is mustering some sort of attack that involves the entire southern hemisphere. It would be more impressive then some of the recent spam attacks (“Everything on the site is pure poetry listadaemail, listadaemail, listadaemail.”)
The Parenthood marathon that followed the Breaking Bad marathon has now been succeeded by a Friday Night Lights marathon. I am, no lie, beginning to exhaust the possibilities of shows I want to see. Suggestions would be welcome, though, be prepared for a SEEN IT. Parenthood is just so freaking warm and fuzzy and heartwarming (and good) that it almost sent me in the opposite direction of Breaking Bad. Why don’t I have a gigantic clan of super smart and quirky close-knit relatives (my actual relatives are disqualified from answering this rhetorical question on the grounds that they may impinge on my disassociative state with reality).
Books:
Marvel Comics by Sean Howe
And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Blu Ray:
Star Trek: The Next Generation Movies Box Set (cont.)
TV/HULU:
The Daily Show with John Stewart
The Colbert Report
Parenthood Seasons Two and Three
Friday Night Lights Season One
Song of the Week: “Forever Young” by Bob Dylan
Video Game:
Borderlands 2 (Level 21 Gunzerker; on chapter 12 of main quest)
* XBOX Live, gamertag: sleeplessdave; feel free to friend me!
Comics:
Peter Panzerfaust Vol. 2: Hooked by Kurtis Wiebe and Tyler Jenkins
Bedlam Vol. 1 by Nick Spencer