May 2009 Archives

Today's cuppa: Many cups of ABC coffee, topped off with Barry's decaf Irish breakfast tea at home

Spent today over at ABC HQ in Burbank, going through a whirlwind round of interviews with talent from ABC Network and its sister cablenets. Talked to some terrific folks, topped off by meeting Regis Philbin of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," who's just as lovely and gracious as you think he'd be. More later.

Got home and turned on my computer to discover that YouTube sensation Susan Boyle lost out to a dance troupe called Diversity on the U.K. talent competition "Britain's Got Talent." Somehow I don't think that will slow her down one bit.

I watched Boyle's performance in the finale -- in which judge Piers Morgan stated that she should win -- resulting in the same sniffling, cheering and clapping (though just short of the outright sobbing with joy) that accompanied my first viewing of her sensational audition.

Back in April, a couple of weeks after Boyle became an overnight online-video superstar, I attended an NBC press day and sat down with Morgan -- a "Celebrity Apprentice" winner who's also the host of NBC's "America's Got Talent," returning for a fourth season on June 23 -- and we talked about the Boyle phenomenon. Here are a few of his comments.

On Boyle's post-audition makeover:

Of course, that's showbiz. It's ridiculous. Every woman in the world who is suddenly propelled into fame would have a hairdo. People ask me, 'How do you feel about Susan Boyle having all these makeovers?' I said, "Well, she's like me, she's just getting better looking every day."

On how many beautiful voices we're never hearing because they're not attached to beautiful faces:

Millions. Millions! I think the whole emphasis on the aesthetic look is going to change. What the recession has done worldwide is make people go back to core values, to find themselves again, re-establish relationships with family and friends.

In terms of television and entertainment, Susan Boyle represents the new way, which is, it doesn't matter what you look like. The rest of it's fake and phony.

She's not a size zero or a conventional beauty or any of those things, but she has a powerful spirit and an amazing talent. And funny! Hilarious. She's absolutely loving every moment.

On what Boyle -- an unemployed, unmarried 47-year-old Scottish church volunteer who lives with her cat, Pebbles -- has given to the world:

We're in a recession, and a lot of people are suffering. They've lost their homes, their jobs. They're struggling to pay their bills.

What Susan Boyle's given everyone is a real sense of inspiration and hope that if you dream a dream, however bad things get, you can realize it. Never give up. it's important.

She's singlehandedly cheering the world up. That's a pretty amazing thing.

On the beatific, Christmas-morning smile that appeared on the face of hard-nosed "Britain's Got Talent" and "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell during Boyle's audition:

It was like, "Ka-ching! Ka-ching!" Simon's Simon. He's just a pussycat. Simon was shocked. We were all shocked by it, the Susan Boyle thing, still reeling from it now.

Next post, look for Morgan's take on the art of the interview, his hopes for an American talk show and the public figure that he would consider to be Nixon to his Frost.

Tonight's cuppa: peppermint tea

Click here for the podcast version of my regular Thursday appearance -- delayed briefly because of a little emergency, quickly resolved -- on Shaun Daily's TV Talk show on blogtalkradio.com. We talk a lot about the "Wipeout" season premiere and a little about what's down the pike in new TV tech that will one day mind-meld your PC and your TV. I come in at a bit past the half-hour mark.

My cuppa: Barry's Irish Breakfast tea

This past Monday, I engaged in an internal debate -- and then threw the question out on Twitter -- as to whether I should watch the season-five premiere of TLC's monster reality hit "Jon & Kate Plus 8."

I had never seen an episode of the show about two parents and their eight small children (including a set of sextuplets), but was well aware of it and had seen the news reports about all the allegations and tabloid headlines swirling around husband Jon Gosselin and his supposed unwise behavior.

But I did have an inkling, through my own sources (didn't try to find this out, it just happened), that Kate Gosselin was challenging to deal with, to say the least -- but then so am I if I don't get a cuppa when I need one.

In the end, for professional reasons, I decided to watch.

Then I pondered whether to write more than a "tweet" about it. Again, my job is to watch TV and talk to you guys afterward, so here's the only post I plan to do on the subject.

What I saw was a sad and unfortunate display of two people who have definitely reached the end of the marital rope and, for at least Jon, reached the end of patience with life in the TV/celebrity bubble.

It's always regrettable, though unfortunately not uncommon, when a marriage hits the rocks, especially when there are children involved. As for the TV thing, if the Gosselins didn't know what they were getting into, they've never stood in a supermarket checkout line. But then, the human capacity for self-deception is considerable, and no one on the outside knows what has happened behind the scenes day to day.

That all being said, this just reinforces my feeling that minors shouldn't be involved in this sort of intrusive reality-TV shows, especially children as young as the Gosselins'. They aren't capable of consenting properly to having their lives put under a microscope, not to mention permanently recorded for the world to see.

Luckily, these seem like basically sweet, bright kids, and they make a good impression on-camera.

Always bears repeating that the show wouldn't exist, and those paparazzi wouldn't be trailing the clan day and night, if we, the viewing public, didn't tune in. Nothing can become a spectacle if nobody's watching.

I sincerely hope the Gosselins work out their differences, for their own sakes and that of their considerable brood. Beyond that, just don't have any interest in watching more.

Now I can go back to Discovery's "Deadliest Catch" and my new favorite reality show, TLC's "The Little Couple." Love seeing hard-working, resourceful people coping with the tough challenges life throws their way -- and no kids (except the ones that the physician female half of the "Couple" helps as a pediatrician).

My cuppa: Newhall Coffee Patriot Blend

If you don't want to know what happens at the beginning of opilio-crab season on Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch," sail away now. Avast, ye mateys, here be spoilers.

Been missing the sight of Capt. Phil Harris at the helm of the F/V Cornelia Marie? Well ... oops, getting ahead of myself. First, a little look behind of scenes of what it takes to "Catch" the action on film.

We all know this intellectually, but sometimes it helps to be reminded that for every shot of the Bering Sea dousing a deckhand, or of a captain in the wheelhouse, fretting about where to drop his strings of crab pots, there's a camera operator.

High seas, high winds, warm days, frigid days, good fishing and bad, these intrepid souls capture it all. This season, one of them has been blogging about his experiences, at "Diaries of a Greenhorn Producer." Meet Josh Silberman...

The Wisconsin native is 28 years old, but looks about a decade younger, even with the beard he was ordered to grow before heading out to sea.

He's not a big guy, but got even smaller on the Cornelia Marie, as constant seasickness caused him to lose 15 pounds.

But as a determined young man who launched his TV career by testing the disgusting food stunts on NBC's "Fear Factor" -- and financed a trip around the world with a big win on "The Price Is Right" -- there is no place he'd rather be.

"Personally," he says, "I feel like I can deal with anything, and the Bering Sea just kicked my a--. I have so much respect for those guys after going through that. They do this all the time.

"It's one of those things where, when you're there, 'This is miserable. Why do I want to do this?' Then when you leave it, you just think about all the things that you miss. Working with those guys is great. It's like being on a football team -- you're all going through hell together.

"It's like Navy SEAL Hell Week for producers. Going there was the worst experience of my life, and doing it was the best experience I ever had, because it made me who I am now. Now, any job I do, it's the easiest job I ever had."

Silberman was dubbed "Mouse," partly for his small stature and partly to differentiate him from Josh Harris, one of the two deckhand sons of Cornelia Marie skipper Phil Harris.

A pulmonary embolism suffered during a storm in the midst of opilio-crab season in early 2008 sent Capt. Phil to the hospital, endangering his life and leaving him on dry land for last fall's king-crab season.

But when the 2009 opilio-crab season began ... well, let's just say that Phil gets his feet wet, starting with the episode airing Tuesday, June 2.

"I was on the boat with (producer) Todd Stanley," Silberman says, "who's been around the boat since the beginning of time. Todd is amazing. That guy taught me so much. But he was in the wheelhouse, because he's dealt with the extremely easy man to produce -- Phil.

"I was on deck, because I'm new. You've got to start at the bottom and prove your way to the top."

But would Silberman ever be a deckhand?

"Yes, and no," he says. "Do I think I could be a deckhand? Yes. Would I ever want, in a million years, to be a deckhand? No, not even close. That's hard. Those guys are hard-working. They are tough. They are men's men."

Silberman also knows a good captain when he sees one.

"Phil is the master of crab. That man really knows what he's doing when it comes to catching the crab."

Asked what thrills and chills come with opie season, Silberman says, "There were some big waves, some big weather. There are some really scary moments on our boat and the Wizard. Some scary moments, where I was wondering if we were going to get out of it.

"I know we were in a hurricane. We had 100-mile-an-hour winds, blowing up against the boat. I can't even describe the sound. It was just daunting.

"Todd came next to me, and said, 'Dude, I want you to sleep with your survival suit tonight.' And when Todd Stanley" -- seen in the picture to the left -- "says that, it freaks you out. I've never seen him scared of anything."

BTW, Silberman, who also worked with the beautiful models as a field producer on "Deal or No Deal," not only was a contestant with Bob Barker on "The Price Is Right" -- click here for his rather, ahem, energetic appearance -- but got nominated for the Most Outrageous Game Show Contestant, for the GSN Game Show Awards.

To see if Silberman wins, check out the first annual awards telecast on June 6, with host Howie Mandel. who's also a nominee in the best game show host category for his ongoing duties at Silberman's former workplace, "Deal or No Deal."

Asked what his advice is for other young folks seeking a career behind the camera and/or at sea, Silberman says, "How you find out who you are as a human being is what you do when you're scared for your life. Everybody needs to challenge themselves."

Lastly, while Silberman admits the ratio of men to women in the Alaskan fishing fleet's picturesque home port of Dutch Harbor leans heavily in the ladies' favor, he'd caution any eligible females considering heading to Dutch in search of romance.

"If you want a tough Alaskan fisherman -- or herpes -- you can go to Dutch Harbor."

But if you're still determined to head north to Alaska, check out Dutch Harbor Dirt, a local resident's blog chronicling the goings-on around town.

My cuppa: iced coffee, one from a fast-food place and the other from a coffeeshop. Verdict? Toss-up!

Available in syndication is a pair of short articles I did on reality shows hitting the airwaves this week. Without further ado...

The Little Couple Takes on the World

On Tuesday, May 26, TLC adds to its stable of families facing unusual challenges with the premiere of "The Little Couple," chronicling the daily lives of newlyweds Bill Klein and Jen Arnold.

Klein's a businessman, and Arnold's a pediatrician, and their lives are as busy as those of any young professional couple. But since they're both under 4 feet tall, life has thrown them a few extra curveballs.

But, Klein doesn't really see it that way.

"People may say, 'Wow, that's amazing; they're able to do laundry or save a baby,' " Klein says, "but to us, it's second nature. It's like you putting on your shoes.

"You learned it that way when you first learned how to do it, and that's the way you've done it ever since. Now we weren't on this planet for three days -- we've been here for a while.

"All the things that we've learned how to do, we've learned just like you guys have. We go through the same steps to get there. Just because we have the intermediary of a stepladder or something like that, it's not that big a deal."

Actually, the biggest challenge Klein and Arnold may be facing right now is just how to squeeze a relationship into a TV schedule.

"With the fact that we have jobs besides this that need our full attention," Klein says, "for the production of the show, what gets taken away is our personal time, of Jen and I being able to be alone."

• Klein's tips for young little people:

"Shoot for the stars. Pay attention to your exams; get good grades; go to the best school. Write an awesome essay, talk about your personal trials, tribulations and successes. Do what really turns you on."

• On avoiding victim mentality:

"The whole world isn't against us. That's the mentality of the minority of people that have challenges like this. Most people don't think about it. They think about how to achieve their goals, not why they can't."

And now for something completely different...

'Wipeout' Takes It to the Edge

Far outside of Los Angeles, on a dusty abandoned ranch ringed by hills scorched by brush fires, ABC's obstacle-course competitive reality show "Wipeout" -- returning for a new season on Wednesday, May 27 -- aims to manage chaos.

While the job of wrangling what goes on in front of the cameras falls to the show's hosts, John Henson and John Anderson, and co-host Jill Wagner, there's a whole army of people behind the scenes working hard to make the huge obstacles colorful, exciting and scary but not overly dangerous.

Among those leading that army is executive producer Scott Larsen, one of the evil geniuses behind elaborate qualifying challenges with names like Sucker Punch, Dizzy Dummy and Dreadmill.

The goal is to weed out the weaker competitors from the initial 24, leaving only the strong to make it to nightfall and the brightly lit "Wipeout Zone" with its waterfalls and jets of flame -- all in pursuit of a $50,000 grand prize.

"What we're looking for are uncontrolled, awkward falls," says Larsen, "because those are the funniest, and it's always funny when you bounce off of something. The big balls are always good for that.

"We design all the stunts to be safe, but we also design for maximum wipeout. We go from safe to wipeout -- that's always the rule. If you go the other way around, that's how we get hurt.

"(In testing), we go a little bit faster, little bit faster, until we wipe out. We aim for 90 percent failure. That's what we want."

Although only one competitor can take home the cash, those who wiped out don't necessarily go home empty-handed.

Says casting director Rich Leist (photo from my set visit, at right), "These guys are exchanging e-mails, giving phone numbers. They're planning parties together. "It's amazing to see people competing for money, but at the end of the day, they've genuinely become friends, because they've shared this bonding experience.

" 'How did you do on the big balls?' Once they get out of it, and they can talk to somebody else who's done it, all of a sudden they have this in common."

My cuppa: peppermint tea

Allow me to confess up front -- I am not a big sports watcher on TV. Before you jump to the conclusion that I'm just a chick who doesn't dig sports, think again. I do, and at different times in my life, I've been quite devoted to this or that baseball or football team, with occasional dips into Olympic sports, tennis and boxing.

I also spent three years working on weekends doing freelance event coverage of horse sports, from show jumping and dressage to high-goal polo and Thoroughbred racing.

Also, the men in my family are big auto-racing fans, so today wasn't the first time I watched the Indianapolis 500, but is the first time I've watched in a few years.

What was different this year is I recently got an HDTV (no, not a humongous plasma, but a reasonably sized, reasonably priced LCD TV). I get HD feeds, and my cable company installed a new cable/DVR box and component cables, so I get a really good picture.

And that's why I watched. Before heading off to church, I saw a bit of the pre-race festivities, and it just looked so pretty, I decided to put the race on the DVR to watch when I got home later.

Watch I did, and even Twittered about it --

Watching Indy 500 on the DVR on the HDTV. Not something I would have watched in SD. Any sports events you're more likely to watch in HDTV?

(one follower replied to this, saying "All of them." Another one said "Football.")

The car cams sure are more impressive on HDTV.

Totally digging the ESPN Side-by-Side, which runs the commercials while still running the Indy500 (on my DVR) on the side. Very cool.

And finally...

HDTV, Indy...cars...pretty...colors...oops, fire!

Unfortunately, the several equestrian events I watched over the last week, mostly on Universal Sports, were not in HD, and boy, I wish they had been. They would have been gorgeous.

While I'm not personally convinced that HDTV will improve basketball (yeah, yeah, I know, whatever), baseball and especially football must look fabulous. I may even check out a game (or not -- I need to know the teams well to enjoy the game, and I just don't have the time to properly invest right now).

But World Series and Super Bowl, definitely -- and next up, on June 6, the Belmont Stakes, which I hope will feature a best-two-out-of-three showdown between working-class hero and Kentucky Derby champ Mine That Bird and uber-filly Rachel Alexandra, who denied MTB the Triple Crown in a close one-two finish in the Preakness Stakes.

When Marshall McLuhan said "The medium is the message," he was partly right. As I expected, nature and science documentaries, live news and sports look so detailed and bright and sharp in HDTV, I'll probably wind up watching more of all of the above.

Now, this level of detail can be distracting in a drama show. I spent too much of the "Fringe" finale thinking about Anna Torv's flyaway ends, and the embroidery on "The Tudors" can cause me to lose my place in the story. But changing my medium of watching TV will have an effect to a degree on the TV I watch.

How about you?

Oh, and BTW, this year's Indy winner? Brazilian cutie-pie Helio Castroneves, whom I absolutely adored when he competed in -- and won -- the fifth cycle of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

Now he's got a third Indy trophy to add to his shelf, along with that big old glitterball.

But my DVR cut off the end of the race, so I had to look up the finish on the Internet. Technology has its limitations -- and its compensations.

Today's cuppa: Gevalia Swiss hazelnut from the Tassimo coffeemaker

Click here for a link to my regular Thursday appearance on Shaun Daily's TV Talk Radio on blogtalkradio.com.

Owing to technical difficulties, I came in a bit later than usual -- at somewhere just past the half-hour mark -- and owing to technical snafus and a surprise visit from my TV-crit buddy April MacIntyre from "Monsters and Critics," I stayed on way longer than usual.

The conversation also took some odd turns, and I'm pretty sure I repeated myself, but good fun was had by all

Well, done, John Wells, Ann Biderman and the "Southland" team.

Thursday's first-season finale ended a few storylines -- such as that of prime witness Janila (Carla Jeffrey), who I liked very much in the premiere and will really miss -- and opened up a few more, including the utter breakdown of troubled Officer Billy Dewey (C. Thomas Howell).

While not highly rated, "Southland" has turned out to be a solidly crafted,  compelling, character-rich police drama in the tradition of "Hill Street Blues" and "Third Watch" (Wells' previous folks-in-uniform show).

It's not all flash and dazzle and high concepts and superpowers (not that there's anything wrong with those, of course). Instead, it's a grown-up cop show for grown-up cop-show fans.

The subject of the show's initial buzz, Ben McKenzie, as rookie Officer Ben Sherman, still manages to make the most of his relatively small amount of dialogue. That boy does hangdog look like nobody's bidness.

Also, Regina King, as Detective Adams, rocks a 12-gauge something fierce. You go, girl!

On a final note, totally knew Det. Clarke (Tom Everett Scott) was going to get gunned down the moment he headed across the street. Maybe it's learning to read camera angles and scene pacing, maybe it's just having spent way too many hours of my life watching cop shows.

Or maybe I'm just a TV pessimist, always expecting the worst-case scenario. At least I'm seldom disappointed, as worst-case scenarios often make the best dramatic TV.

Not saying it wasn't the big drama finish the creators intended, but instead of being shocked by it, I was waiting for it. It's not a feeling I enjoy.

Still looking forward to new episodes this fall, Fridays at 9 p.m. Eastern/Pacific, 8 p.m. Central.

Tonight's cuppa: decaf Barry's Irish breakfast tea

Like I said in this previous blog post, I've been on the case of Fox's "Glee" for a while. So, it's great that it's finally aired, and the folks and many critics like it fine.

And just in case you were wondering if this sort of show-choir thing only went on in the world of TV, click here to see what a real one looks and sounds like.

Since I know you're loving all things "Glee" at the moment, here's an excerpt from my syndicated Inside TV column for this week that features more from my interview with Jenna Ushkhowitz, who plays Tina...

JUST A GIRL WITH 'GLEE'...In Fox's new high-school musical series "Glee," which premieres its pilot after "American Idol" on Tuesday, May 19 (then returns to the schedule in the fall), Jenna Ushkowitz plays Tina, a stuttering Goth girl who blossoms onstage in her Ohio high school's glee club.

But on this April day on the show's sets at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, Ushkowitz is not so much blossoming as hurting.

"My neck is really sore," she says, "because I've been doing head rolls a lot. My back and my neck ... I woke up this morning and went, 'Oh, no!' I've been sore, but that's OK. We've been dancing a lot."

In "Glee," the glee club is also a show choir, a phenomenon centered mostly in the Midwest and in California that combines choral singing with elaborate choreography and costumes.

Handel's "Messiah," it's not.

"First I was in shock (when I read the script)," Ushkowitz says, "then it started to sink in. When we found out that everybody had to sing for the audition, it was a really crazy thing. I sang 'Waiting for Life to Begin,' from 'Once on an Island.'

"I was definitely in shock, definitely excited, because it really felt special when I read it. It was different."

Different, perhaps, but singing and dancing are two things that Ushkowitz knows a lot about.

She began her show-business career at three, appearing in print ads and later on such TV shows as "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," "As the World Turns" and "Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards."

Along with touring the country with "The Broadway Kids," Ushkowitz made her Broadway debut at nine, in a revival of "The King and I." She's also been in "Into the Woods."

A class president in her performing-arts high school, she graduated Marymount Manhattan College in only three years with a B.A. in acting and a minor in musical theater.

While the glee-club kids in "Glee" are at the bottom of the social ladder, it wasn't like that when Ushkowitz was a teen.

"I went to performing-arts high school, so we all performed," she says. "There was lots of crying, singing and dancing through the halls.

"You had people singing for you, breaking into song every few minutes, from high school through college."

One thing she's had to work on is switching from musical-theater mode, in which all of your expressions are big and the voice is loud, to TV-acting mode, which is more minimalist in style.

"It's really hard," Ushkowitz says, "especially because, instinctually, for me onstage, you shoot and project, you're big, and you're always reacting.

"But here, you're on a stage, but you also have cameras right here, in your face. So you have to be a lot more aware of where you are, just trying to find that fine line and that balance."

Of course, when you put that many young people with musical talent in one place, and things are bound to happen.

"It's really positive right now," Ushkowitz says. "Everybody gets along really well, which I hope stays. With such a young cast, it's really tough; you spend so much time with everybody.

"But it's good that we all love each other, the cast and the crew. It's definitely a musical atmosphere, with everybody singing all the time. The hair and makeup trailer -- it makes it interesting for them."

Asked what kind of a girl Tina is, Ushkowitz says, "She's a rebel, but that's against her parents. That's against her life. When she goes to school, and she's with those underdogs and those people she calls her friends, there's a different aspect of her that really wants to come out and be happy and confident.

"She's working on it."

My cuppa: peppermint tea

On Wednesday night, Style Network's "Clean House" began its search for the "Messiest Home in the Country 3" with a visit to St. Louis, the hometown of host Niecy Nash.

The mother of the clutter-bound family in question loves monkeys. Stuffed monkeys, ceramic monkeys, monkey whatnots of all sorts overran their house, and the youngest of her three live monkeys (which thankfully all wear diapers) sleeps in the bed she shares with her husband (who, along with his son, had tool issues).

I love my "Clean House," but this skeeved me out, mostly because I don't love primates -- and that goes for monkeys, apes and lemurs (OK, some lemurs are marginally cute, as long as they're WAY over there). I make an exception for snow monkeys. You gotta love a monkey that sits in a hot tub.

Before you think I just don't like critters, I'll take a dog, a cat, a horse (I'll REALLY take a horse), a hamster, a mouse or the hummingbirds on my balcony any day, but no primates.

On the upside, it was nice to see Miss Niecy's extended family show up, including her grandma and an aunt.

And, BTW ,the fact that regular go-to guy Matt Iseman was not in St. Louis DOES NOT mean he's  leaving the show. Iseman does a show on Versus called "Sports Soup," and production for that kept him close to home (as you already knew if you saw this earlier "Clean House" post).

Iseman was also on hand for a "Clean House" yard sale that took place this past Saturday at a church in in Northridge, Calif. I got an alert about the sale from a "CH" Facebook page, and since I was picking up a friend in Northridge that morning to go for lunch and Father's Day shopping at the Reagan Presidential Library in nearby Simi Valley, we decided to make a detour.

On the one hand, I was glad I did. On the other hand...

I didn't cross paths with Iseman that morning -- in a text later on, he said he spotted me but was pulled away to do some filming -- but I did see my favorite TV designer, Mark Brunetz.

Since the sale in question was for Nash herself, and for her mother, the "CH" staff decked themselves out Niecy-style. Really sorry I missed Iseman's getup, but I did grab a picture of Brunetz, wig, flower and all...

And here's Miss Niecy doing some wheeling and dealing...

Speaking of wheeling and dealing, before I said hello to anyone, my friend and I decided to check out the merchandise. I saw a cute, brand-new bag on a heap of purses (one contained a check register, which my friend found and handed over for safekeeping). which still had plastic on the handles and paper stuffed in it. One of the lovely church ladies told me that they were asking $45 -- so I offered her $20, and she took it.

Always nice to have a cute but inexpensive purse to take to lunch, I thought. This is my purchase.

Click here to see what I found out when I Googled the designer's name. I'm a lucky girl.

But the universe balanced the scales a few minutes later. While I was talking to Brunetz under a tent, I managed to turn the wrong way, and my cute new purse smashed a glass vase. Of course, the cameraman rushed over, Brunetz started talking, I mugged for the camera, and now I'll probably wind up on television (something I ardently avoid).

It wasn't even that good of a hair day. Ah, well.

My afternoon cuppa: Barry's Classic blend, with milk and real sugar

If you don't live in Eastern time and love Fox's "American Idol" -- which has its big finale tonight -- would you pay a fee to watch the live feed of the show on demand?

Each day, I tell you what's in my cuppa, but I thought I'd start a new feature to offer you something to enjoy with yours.

Since I'm out here on the Left Coast, I'll drop you a note from time to time before heading off to bed -- sometimes on what I saw on TV that night, sometimes just a thought about the media events of the day -- that East Coasters and beyond can peruse over the breakfast beverage of their choice.

And you never know, if something really exciting happens during the day, there might be an Afternoon Cuppa as well (If you haven't already caught it on my Twitter feed, that is).

To start off, here are my thoughts on the season-eight finale of one of my personal obsessions, "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC...

Try as they might to pad results shows with interesting stuff, to me, they're still heavily fast-forwarded DVR fodder. Watched more of this finale (started an hour in on the DVR), but not that much more.

Did, however, enjoy reliving the joy I got from the dance-floor stylings of The Dream That Was Woz and Cowboy Ty.

I watched Jeffrey Ross' roast. I wish I hadn't. I didn't watch Lady Whoever She Was do her singy-dancy whatever it was. Very glad I didn't.

Regarding the final dances, Olympic champion Shawn Johnson, cha-cha-cha-ing with pro Mark Ballas, was a little sparkplug. For a small girl with short arms and legs, she works it as well as the long-limbed beauties.

"Bachelor" broken heart Melissa Rycroft is pretty as a picture and sweet as Southern iced tea. Most comfortable with balletic elegance, she finally found her inner mojito for a bum-shaking salsa with pro partner Tony Dovolani (click here for an earlier blog post interview with him).

"Sex and the City" star Gilles Marini did a smoldering Argentine tango with ballroom-pro powerhouse Cheryl Burke. If this dashing Frenchman wasn't such a good family man and apparently all-around nice guy, it might be impossible to like him, seeing as he's ridiculously handsome and suave and graceful and tall and French.

But, like Australian heartthrob Simon Baker of CBS' "The Mentalist," he demonstrates that looks plus character and heart equal irresistible. Hollywood bad boys, take note...

As for the big winner...

Shawn & Mark! It was worth it to watch Ballas' drop-to-the-floor, hands-over-mouth  reaction, and the honest smile on Marini's face (and the  somewhat less honest smile from the highly competitive Burke. You know she thought she had this one in the bag, being partnered with the living embodiment of Prince Charming.).

Overall, another thoroughly satisfying season culminating in the awarding of a thoroughly fugly glitterball trophy.

Also watched Discovery's "Deadliest Catch," which closed out the king crab season (the opilio crab season comes next). This reminded to tell you that I'm still doing my darndest to get Norwegian Northwestern skipper Sig Hansen on "Dancing" (as previously chronicled here). I even plan to bring it up at lunch with an ABC alternative-series executive next week.

And, FYI, I have a special treat in the works for the launch of opie season -- a peek behind the scenes with "Deadliest" cameraman Josh Silberman. Can't wait to introduce him to you guys!

Today's cuppa: PG Tips tea

I heard about this show for months, then did two set visits and a couple of blog posts, and wrote a syndicated feature story.

At long last, "Glee" is here!

The high-school musical show premieres tonight on Fox, seeking that post-"American Idol" bump, then disappears until returning on Wednesdays this fall after the "So You Think You Can Dance" results show.

So a dancer gets ditched, then we get "Glee"! Mood swing evening...

Anyway, I got a big kick out of the "Glee" pilot and had good fun on set. Check it out...

Fox hopes 'Idol' can bring 'Glee' to America

By Kate O'Hare

©Zap2it

As demonstrated by the YouTube megapopularity of dowdy Scotswoman Susan Boyle's surprising audition for "Britain's Got Talent," a beautiful voice has incredible power to stir strong emotions, from the deepest longing to the most explosive joy -- or even glee.

Three days after the video's release, a writer on the new Fox musical-comedy-drama "Glee" watches the clip on his laptop between takes on the show about high-school glee club misfits who find joy and freedom in song.

To complete the circle, one of the "Britain's Got Talent" judges, Simon Cowell, is a judge on Fox's "American Idol," and Fox is betting on that show's big audience to help "Glee" make a big impression.

The "Glee" pilot airs after the Tuesday, May 19, episode of "Idol," then doesn't return to the schedule until fall.

"It's rare to get that many people watching their television sets at the same time," executive producer Dante Di Loreto says, "so to have the opportunity to show the audience this show, which we feel is special and different and stands alone -- it feels right to be doing it in a special and different way.

"Honestly, it plays as much like a one-hour movie as it does a single episode of a TV series, so it captures the special-event quality of what this show is. There's nothing else like it on television."

Set at the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio, "Glee" is the creation of executive producer Ryan Murphy ("Popular," "Nip/Tuck"), who went to high school and college in Indiana.

Broadway star Matthew Morrison stars as Will Schuester, a McKinley Spanish teacher who, driven by his secret past (no, nothing illegal), takes over the school's moribund glee club.

Once a championship show choir -- which combines singing, choreography and costumes -- the club has turned into a haven for outcasts who sit at the bottom of McKinley's social hierarchy.

Will's plan to revive the club includes recruiting handsome quarterback Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith), who's paired onstage with high-energy perfectionist Rachel Berry (Lea Michele).

Rounding out the group are dramatic, high-voiced Kurt (Chris Colfer), diva Mercedes (Amber Riley), awkward stutterer Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) and guitarist Artie (Kevin McHale), who doesn't let his wheelchair slow him down.

Also starring are Jayma Mays, Jane Lynch, Dianna Agron, Mark Salling and Jessalyn Gilsig.

For those who saw Morrison in "Hairspray," fear not; you get more than acting from him in "Glee."

"The acting is great," Morrison says, "but when I get to shine and sing and dance, I'm at my most comfortable.

"I'd like to say this was a big stretch for me, but this character is me, if I didn't move to New York and have the success I did there."

When not on location at Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo High School in Long Beach, Calif., (the school's steel-drum band is in the pilot), "Glee" shoots at historic Paramount Studios in Hollywood.

Monteith -- who admits hanging out in the audio-visual lab in high school in Victoria, Canada -- is thrilled to be at Paramount, but he never really had musical theater aspirations.

"It never crossed my mind," he says on the set during a break from dance rehearsals, "that I would do anything with it or sing in front of people in any capacity whatsoever.

"The dancing is even tougher for me. I hope that doesn't show in the series."

Riley has her knee in a brace, and she has Murphy to thank for it. Her first TV role came in one of his pilots, and then he got to discover she could sing (and now, dance) when she auditioned for "Glee."

"It's like my career is starting all over," she says. "I stopped acting; I started singing. Now ... it started with him, and it's starting over with him, too."

For stage and TV veteran Ushkowitz, playing Tina is a chance to not be who she was in her performing arts high school.

"I was class president," she says, "outgoing personality. I was more of a Rachel Berry, personally. I exhausted myself."

As for McHale, he says, "I grew up singing ... and dancing, not that that matters in this case. It was cool, because it was a different character, obviously in a wheelchair, so that's new for me.

"I don't play guitar, so that's been new for me."

For Di Loreto, it's about showing that happy isn't out of style.

"I hope that we're catching the time and place today in America," he says, "that no matter how depressing the news or the economy, the fact that kids want to sing and dance and perform and fulfill their potential is joyful and uplifting and fun to watch."

Today's cuppa: PG Tips tea

As you may or may not know, I have a side gig as a "guest eGuider" for the website eGuiders.com, which features industry insiders recommending online videos.

Happy to share the pick of the day -- one of mine, natch -- offering the biggest laugh you're likely to get in five seconds.

OK, maybe I don't know you well enough to say that, but trust me anyway and click on "Dramatic Squirrel."

And if you like that, here's the "Dramatic Squirrel on 'Lost'."

And lastly, in the guise of a different species, "Dramatic Squirrel Is Back!"

And just because I'm in the mood for cute, here are some baby squirrels that run up a guy's pants. You know you want some of that.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled Saturday, already in progress.

Today's cuppa: coffee from the Tassimo, considering more...

Click here for the MP3 link to my regular Thursday appearance on Shaun Daily's TV Talk show on blogtalkradio.com. I come in at around the 30-minute mark, but I'm bookended by two interviews from "Southland," Michael Cudlitz and Shawn Hatosy, both well worth a listen.

Today's cuppa: Iced black/raspberry/peppermint tea

Lots of folks out there are loving Discovery Channel's Wednesday hit "Pitchmen," so I've dug back into an interview with star Anthony Sullivan that I did for a print piece and unearthed some gems.

As a reminder, "Pitchmen" takes viewers behind the scenes in the world of TV infomercials that hawk everything from cleaning products to kitchen aids to electronics, as seen through the experiences of on-screen pitchman and producer Sullivan, and his best buddy and business partner, on-air star Billy Mays.

Tomorrow morning, I'm talking to Mays, but in the meantime, here's Sully!

On how to get Mays' Oxy-Clean to work better:

The secret is hot water. It's like a catalyst. Even boiling water works well, too. Just don't burn yourself.

On Mays' latest demonstration for his Mighty Putty:

"He was actually towing a pirate ship, the original ship that was in 'The Bounty.' They actually put him on the front of the ship. They put two oars together, they towed him. I wasn't actually there. I went down there to see what's happening.

But they were offshore, and he came back to my office, and he's still alive. That's not a bad thing."

On his beginnings as a pitchman on the streets of London:

"Every time we'd go to the street market, we'd always garner these big crowds. And the booths we'd get given were always in strategic place -- Portobello Road or Leather Lane or Petticoat Lane.

"The pitch guys were always a draw. We'd get people in; you'd sit there with your hot dog or your ice cream or your cotton candy and watch the pitch guys, because they'd make you laugh.

"And if they did get you, you'd only be spending 10 pounds, or $20. There was never a fortune. The products were a lot of fun and worked, solved a common problem at home.

"You'd go home, and you'd say, 'I went to the market today. I just went with my friends to kill a few hours and ended out buying this product from this guy yelling.'"

In the meantime, Mays was dong the same job on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, N.J., and eventually he and Sully both moved off the streets and into the studio:

"When television infomercials started in '88, Billy and I saw the opportunity, because working the streets was really tough. As much fun as it was, there were days when you didn't make that much money. It was freezing cold; it was raining.

"So both of us got a chance to go to Home Shopping Network. To make a long story short, we just started practicing whatever it was we did, the pitches, on Home Shopping, and it just exploded. Our banter, if you will, was really well-received at Home Shopping down there in Tampa, because they used to sell just Capodimonte and cubic zirconias. This was the mid-'90s. It wasn't as sophisticated as it is now.

"We brought in a little bit of color. We were regular sorts of people that people could relate to."

The two later transitioned from HSN to standalone infomercials and TV spots, but what you see isn't always what you get:

"There were so many times that Billy and I would sit behind the scenes and just say, 'If only there was a camera here right now. People have no idea what goes on behind the scenes.' As Billy's beard got blacker, and his shirt got bluer, and his volume got noisier and noisier...

"He's a very different person in real life than on television. He's very quiet and mild-mannered, and the minute you put the camera on him, he just dials up to 11. I just sit there and laugh, saying, 'Where does this energy come from?'"

So what does happen behind the scenes?

"People don't know how hard we work to get these commercials to where they are. We don't work with big budgets. We're working with pretty small budgets. Billy and I will sometimes just sit around, we'll be chugging a glass of wine, and we'll say, 'Let's write a script. Let's come up with some demos.'

"And we come up with these ridiculous scripts, whatever it is, and we have to turn it into reality."

On the American Dream of making a better mousetrap:

"There are some people who, we are really realizing their dreams. Some people, we're not. We don't see everything through rose-colored lenses, but the American Dream is still definitely alive. The unorthodox business we're in is doing really well right now, and Billy and I are unusual characters, to say the least."

Neither he nor Mays sell it, but Sullivan has a suggestion on how to make the ShamWow towel work better:

"You've got to use it wet. Use it damp. Water attracts water. If it's damp, it attracts more water."

And don't expect to do a demo like the "Pitchmen" overnight:

"You make it look so easy sometimes, that people will buy it because, 'Oh, my God, look how easy.' Sometimes you almost want to sit down with people and make sure the instructions are really clear and say, 'This is how you use it.'

'Because people automatically think the minute they try this, they're going to be as genius as Billy and I at using something. But you have to remember, some of these products, we've been doing this for 20 years.

"No one can maneuver a Swivel Sweeper better than me -- the rotation and the quad-brush technology, the forwards, backwards, side-to-side, in and around and under.

"See, if you mix the action into my banter, all of a sudden, you don't know which way to turn."

Check back for my ever-evolving seating chart for the best tea party ever!

The Accidental Futurist -- where I blog about trying not to be swamped by the wave of the future

My New ... Totally -- A catalog of weird houses I find on the Internet ... but houses are only the beginning of the weirdness to come...totally.

Zap2it.com -- best TV-news and listings site, natch...

Big Hollywood -- a look at the entertainment industry from an alternate perspective (or at least what is considered one in the entertainment industry).

J.R. Orci Moblog -- the "Fringe" writer/producer posts some very lovely photographs.

The New Adventures of Mr. Stephen Fry -- The erudite actor and prolific Twitterer, who has a recurring role on Fox's "Bones," offers thoughtful commentary on the world in general and technology in particular.

Tim Goodman. The Bastard Machine -- The San Francisco Chronicle's TV critic endlessly entertains.

Eat Sleep Publish -- excellent blog about the future of publishing.

Digital Media Wire -- pretty self-explanatory.

Wired Blogs -- Blog offshoots of the excellent magazine about the intersection of culture and technology.

GretaWire -- The host of Fox News' "On the Record With Greta Van Susteren" is a tireless blogger and Twitterer, taking on the news and current events, Skype-chatting with users and sharing pet photos. When does she sleep?

Peterman's Eye -- After playing J. Peterman on "Seinfeld" -- in the days before he became a cause celebre on "Dancing With the Stars" -- actor and musician John O'Hurley became an investor in the actual J. Peterman company. This is the company's blog, a literate look at subjects of all sorts.

Televisionary -- How does he get to read all those pilot sripts? Hmmm...

eGuiders -- Here's my page as a guest "eGuider," one of a group of industry pros that recommend online videos. If you have to, you can go to the homepage or look at other peoples' picks. If you have to, I mean, if you're that interested in what people like "Lost" producer Damon Lindelof like...

TechCrunch -- All things tech, and kind of crunchy, too.

SlashDot -- As it says, "News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters.' 'Nuff said.

QuoteGarden Tea Quotes and Sayings

About.com's Coffee and Tea Quotes

The Samuel Johnson Soundbite Page -- one of my literary heroes

TVTattle -- indispensable digest site chock-full of TV linky goodness

Bryce Zabel's For What It's Worth -- and not just because this talented Hollywood writer/producer and old pal occasionally includes Hot Cuppa TV posts

This afternoon's cuppa: black iced tea with a hint of mint

Today, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Fox has picked up "Human Target," the DC Comics-inspired series starring Mark Valley, who last appeared in the recurring role of unfortunate FBI Agent John Scott in Fox's "Fringe," and subsequently married the show's star, Australian actress Anna Torv.

(He was also the star of Fox's "Keen Eddie," the early demise of which broke my heart, but left me with a great magnetic dartboard and a very cute Pete the dog bobblehead.)

Of course, if I'd been paying closer attention to last Friday's conference call with "Fringe" executive producer JJ Abrams, I would have been able to tell you about "Human Target" last week.

At least I remembered today that I heard Abrams say what he said and dug into the transcript, which also came out today. It's all in there somewhere.

(Oh, and Abrams' new "Star Trek" movie will be airing eventually on Fox's sister cablenet FX, but I have no evidence indicating that has anything to do with "Fringe" being picked up for a second season. None at all.)

Here's Abrams' answer to a question posed by Adam Morgan from www.fringetelevision.com...

Morgan: ....Anyway, now that we've seen Charlie and Broyles in this alternate reality, do you think we might run into, say, a still breathing John Scott over there?

JJ Abrams: I would say that it'll be very difficult now that John's show got picked up.

A. Morgan: Oh, that's right.

JJ Abrams: But having said that, I'm very excited his show got picked up, and I do think that there will be some very interesting things happening, given this other place that you were referring to.  ...

I gotta get back to my deadline work, so here's the rest, and since "Fringe" comes on in less than an hour in Eastern time, read fast...

Final Transcript

SPEAKERS

Josh Governale

JJ Abrams

PRESENTATION

 Moderator                  Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Fringe Conference Call with JJ Abrams.  At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode.  Later, we will conduct a question and answer session.  Instructions will be given at that time.  As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.  I would now like to turn the conference over to Josh Governale.  Please go ahead.

J. Governale                Thank you, Brad.  Thanks, everyone.  Good afternoon.  I just want to say thank you to everyone for your ongoing support throughout this season.  We look forward to continue this through Season 2, and as one last reminder, Fringe has its revealing season finale on Tuesday, May 12^th at 9:00/8:00 Central.  So JJ Abrams, thank you very much for taking time out of your very busy and exciting week for questions and answers.

JJ Abrams                    Oh, please, this is my pleasure and you've just basically done all my work for me just now.  I think we can basically just end this.  No, that was very nice of you, and it's my pleasure to do this.  Thank you to everyone on the call for being here.

J. Governale                Please proceed with questions and answers.  Thank you.

Moderator                   And our first question comes from the line of Joshua Maloni from Niagara Frontier.  Please go ahead.

J. Maloni                     Hey, JJ, thanks a lot for your time today.

JJ Abrams                    How's it going?  My pleasure.

J. Maloni                     Tell us a little bit about the conversation that landed Leonard Nimoy in the season finale, if you would, please.

JJ Abrams                    I believe what happened was it began with an e-mail that I sent to him -- oh no, this is what happened, this is what happened.  I remember, I called him and I just essentially started begging, and I told him that we were doing this show.  He was familiar with it, but I don't think he'd seen it.  But he knew of the show and I basically explained that there was a critical character who had been mentioned throughout the first season, including the pilot, and it was a big deal for the show, and not just where he came from and what his back story was, but where it was going, and that it would be an obvious honor if he would consider playing the part. 

                                    He was open to the idea of it but he wanted, of course, to see the show and read some pages, and so we sent him everything that we could, and I was thrilled when he called back and said that he thought it was intriguing and interesting.  And that was how we actually ended up getting him to return to the role of Spock in Star Trek, where we told him the idea, ..., and his response was interest and intrigue, and I knew that was a good sign.

J. Maloni                     All right.  And what can you tell us about that season finale?

JJ Abrams                    I can tell you that it is, in the story of Fringe, it is the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.  If you look at the show as a series of stand-alone episodes, I think it even works in that regard, but because we're trying to do both, have a show that you can tune into at any time and get a Fringe fix, or you can watch regularly and sort of ride the wave of the overall story and see how things connect and fit together that you might not otherwise expect to.  This show feels like it is definitely one of those tent pole episodes in the ... of the show. 

                                    But I think it really does begin the story that's in the beginning of the show, we knew wasn't ..., but the first season was really about the set-up of this world, the characters, their roles, their jobs, getting a sense of, and I think that as the show went on, we got more of a handle on their actions.  But getting a sense of the rhythm of the show, but this is really a massive sort of turning point in the long term arc of the series.

J. Maloni                     All right, looking forward to it.  Thanks, JJ.

JJ Abrams                    I can't wait to see it.  Thanks so much.

Moderator                   We'd like to remind everyone to just ask one question at this time.  The next question comes from Andrew Hanson with LA Times.

A. Hanson                   Hello.  When you originally conceived of the series, did you have anyone in mind for the part of William Bell, and were you planning to hold off for the entire season before he first was revealed?

JJ Abrams                    Well, thanks for the question.  We discussed having him show up earlier in the season, but as you work on a show and as the season progresses it tells you as much as you're telling it, sort of what it wants to be, and it was clear as we were going that getting to William Bell could and should be pushed off, and we should pace ourselves.  And that's one of the biggest challenges, I think, of any first season of a show is really finding the pace of the series, especially a show that has both a stand-alone episode-to-episode and a ... to follow.  So that was very important to us.

Moderator                   And our next question will come from Glen Garvin with the Miami Herald.  Please go ahead.

G. Garvin                    Mr. Abrams, three weeks out of the last four, I believe, my TiVo has missed the conclusion of Fringe because it ran past 10:00 p.m., after getting a late start due to the expansion of American Idol.  I've heard the same complaint from numerous of my readers.  So I have two questions, notwithstanding my instructions to only ask one.  The first is, does it bother you that the show is carried by a network run by drooling ... idiots?  And second, can you tell me what happened in the final two minutes last Tuesday night?

JJ Abrams                    Well, I will say that I do have a different opinion about the network.  But I will say that I, too, have heard from a number of people in frustration that the shows have been cut off, and it's infuriating.  And this happens to me, obviously, as well when I'm watching something, not necessarily Fringe because I get the DVD.  But it is infuriating, and I would say that I would be happy to send you, rather than describe what happens in those last two minutes, which I think are actually pretty cool, I'd rather send you the DVD, if you don't mind, than describe it to you because I think it's fun to watch.

G. Garvin                    That would be great.

JJ Abrams                    Done.

G. Garvin                    Thanks.

JJ Abrams                    Thank you, sir.

Moderator                   And our next question comes from Ellen Gray with the Philadelphia Daily.  Please go ahead.

E. Gray                        Well, I looked those last two minutes up, or the last ten seconds up, on Hulu, but the -

JJ Abrams                    I'd be happy to send you a DVD as well, if you'd like one.

E. Gray                        No, it's okay.  The show, I don't want to say it changed tone over time, but it did seem to be a lot funnier as time went by and also, I think, maybe Olivia became less of a, or maybe I hate to say it, but a robotic character?  How much of the arc of the season did you have in your head when you started and how much of it, as you say, is the show finding itself and telling you what it wants to be?

JJ Abrams                    Well, thank you for the question.  We actually had a surprising amount of plans in terms of broad strokes, but the crazy thing is, as you work on it, like I said, you start to get resistance, not from an actor and not from a director, or even other writers on the show, but you start to, the show just sort of defines its shape in a strange way.  I do think that one of the things that I love about the show is the kind of inherent humor in the insanity of it.  If the show takes itself too seriously, then I'm afraid people will laugh at it.  But if the show has humor inside of it, then the show itself is embracing and admitting to the preposterous nature of many of the episodes and stories.

                                    I love preposterous stories.  My favorite movies, if you look at Jaws or Alien or Tootsie, or whatever, I mean, there are movies that if you describe the story, you go what?  All right, well, okay.  But done well, you're like, oh my God, this is the greatest write ever.  So for me, the humor did, I think, increase as the season went on and I do think things like bringing in Olivia's sister, I think, began to give her at least opportunities to sort of be warmer to someone.  She's a character who admitted in the show that she doesn't really have friends, so I think that there's a, the story for Olivia over the course of time is one of a guarded, protective woman who over time is in a sense forced to kind of be more vulnerable and forced in, and this is as you'll see, something that happens definitely next year, but it is an evolution for her.

Moderator                   And our next question will come from Walt Belchter, with Tampa Tribune.  Please go ahead.

W. Belchter                 Hello.  Congratulations on everything. 

JJ Abrams                    Oh, thank you, sir.

W. Belchter                 Good movie and good renewed TV show.

JJ Abrams                    Oh, thank you very much.

W. Belchter                 I have a question about, you seem to like time travel.  There's time travel in Lost and time travel in Star Trek movie.  Will there be time travel on Fringe?

JJ Abrams                    Well, I definitely think that one of the fun aspects of doing Fringe is the kind of open-ended possibilities of the show, where we could go and what we would do.  Obviously, it is not a brand new convention, the idea, especially science fiction, the idea of traveling through time and space.  But I would say that while Lost concerns itself more with traveling through time, I would say that Fringe can serve itself more in traveling through space.

Moderator                   And our next question will come from Adam Morgan, Fringetelevision.com.

A. Morgan                   Hey, JJ.  Thanks again for doing this.

JJ Abrams                    Oh, thank you.

A. Morgan                   All of your projects feature very strong-willed, independent females like Olivia.  Who or what is your inspiration for those characters?

JJ Abrams                    Well, thanks for the question.  I would like to think that I've been lucky enough to work on projects that have strong-willed characters who happen to be male or female, and certainly in the case of characters like Kate or Sydney Bristow, and certainly Olivia Dunham, that those are females who are ... because they are interesting and strong-willed.  But I also could point to certain male characters that have the same thing.  So I guess the answer is, I don't really try to write characters who are strong women, I just try to write, where I can, strong characters, and if they happen to be women, they happen to be women. 

                                    In my life I've got the most spectacular wife in Katie McGrath.  She is probably the strongest and best influence on me that I've ever had, and I would say that it's no coincidence that it was after I met her that I wrote Felicity, mostly because I think she reminded me to write about stuff that I actually care about again, because it had been a while.  But her strength and her amazing ability to not only immediately understand right and wrong, but she's amazingly capable at articulating that position, and she's very socially active and politically-minded and fights a good fight, and she's someone who is definitely an inspiration, who happens to be a woman.

Moderator                   And our next question will come from Mike Hughes, TV America.

M. Hughes                  Hey, JJ, since everyone else has been asking about the show, let me just ask you about your mood today.  It's got to be a super weird day for you to have a movie come out, the first full day of it and get the kind of reviews you've had and so forth.  You've been looking forward to it for so long.  Just how do you feel right now?  What kind of day is this for you?

JJ Abrams                    Well, it's nice of you to put it that way, and thank you.  I'm, of course, on the edge of my seat in terms of what the business of the film will be like.  I just pray people go, and that they like it.  But in terms of my actual day, it was wonderful because my oldest son didn't have school today so he and I got to hang out, and especially given how much traveling we've all been doing on the movie, it was really nice to just get to hang out with him and have as close to a non-working day as possible.  So it's just been fun.  It's been good.

Moderator                   And our next question will come from Mickey O'Connor, TVGuide.com.

M. O'Connor              Hey, JJ, thanks for taking the time with us today.

JJ Abrams                    Oh, thank you.

M. O'Connor              I'm wondering if Season 1 was about learning about the enemy, learning about ZBT and learning about how Walter and Olivia cross paths with that.  I'm wondering if you can speak sort of generally about what Season 2's arc might be.

JJ Abrams                    Well, first of all, I would say that it's ZFT.

M. O'Connor              ZFT, sorry.

JJ Abrams                    I would say that, yes, I think the first year was about not just getting to know the enemy but getting to understand that there is an enemy.

M. O'Connor              Right.

JJ Abrams                    I would actually argue that in a way Season 2 is getting to know the enemy.  Season 1 is identifying that there is an enemy and really getting to know each other.  But I think that as the show progresses what you'll see in the second season is that it's building to a very specific type of confrontation and I think that you'll see that there will be a really interesting shift in the sort of fundamental paradigm of the show at the beginning of next season, in a very cool way. 

                                    So, without going into any details about it, it has a kind of fun, fresh way in next year that I think is, you never know how it's going to work, you just cross your fingers and pray people like it, but I feel like it's one of those next season beginnings that feel thrilling to me, in a way that is more than just, oh, I can't wait for him to come back.  It's, I can't wait for him to experience what we're doing, and for them to come back this way.  And so that's the thing that is, I know I'm being insanely vague, but I would say that the excitement is not just now, in sort of these characters knowing each other, but now it's with playing with them a little bit.

Moderator                   And our next question will come from Hilary Rothing with Ugo.com

H. Rothing                  Thank you for everything, JJ.

JJ Abrams                    Thank you.

H. Rothing                  I'm wondering, what lessons, if any, did you learn from Lost that you applied to the creation of the first season of Fringe?

JJ Abrams                    Have Damon Lindel of run it.  No, well the truth is, when I was on Lost, at the beginning, we were just trying to figure out how the show was going to work and how could we take our ideas that we had, these big picture ideas, and actually make a series out of it, which ... what happens with every show.  But one of the lessons that I learned from Lost, and from Alias, was to try and create a show without ... that would not confound people if they happened to miss the first two or three hours.  And it was a very conscious decision at the very beginning of developing the show, which was like, let's come up with a show that could just be a series of really crazy week-to-week insane events, and knowing that we all love the ongoing nature of series television character development and stuff, we knew that we would never not have that as a part of it. 

                                    So secondarily, we knew we would be doing, of course, character stories which you would see evolve over the years.  So we try to pace ourselves out in that regard.  But I think that the biggest lesson was to try and avoid hurting people's brains by making the show too confusing too early and then making it in that regard, limiting to and unwelcoming ...  Thank you for the question.

Moderator                   The next question is from Curt Wagner with Redeye.  Please go ahead.

C. Wagner                   Hi, JJ.  First of all, I just want to thank you for both Fringe and Star Trek.

JJ Abrams                    Oh, thank you.

C. Wagner                   They're both awesome.

JJ Abrams                    Oh, right on.  Thanks.

C. Wagner                   And then I wanted to ask you about, I talked to Jasika Nicole recently, and she told me that the season finale is going to reveal good secrets about Peter and his past, and I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about that.  I know you can't tell us what they are, but like maybe what kind of things we're going to see, or give us any kind of hint.

JJ Abrams                    Well, instead of, obviously, giving any details away, because I'd rather not do that, but I would say that what's particularly cool about where we're finally going now, and where we're going to be next season, is that the story has, it's working on all three characters strengths.  And that is to say that over the course of the season you'd find what sort of, is most exciting about a character and you figure out what are the elements that aren't working as well and what are the things that you'd love to see a character experience.  I think that where we are at the end of this year, yes, you're going to get a little bit of a piece of Peter's ultimate story; but I think that it also is a huge turning point for the other two as well. 

                                    And so, again, without giving anything away, I think that the fun of this first year was getting to know our people and their getting to know each other, and I feel so grateful that FOX were as supportive as they were and that we're coming back.  They have the reputation for immediately canceling shows and I think that we are proof positive that it's not always the case, and again, I stand here incredibly grateful.  But I think that the fun of next season is going to be now that we have this life, is that we're going to get to actually delve not only deeper into sort of who they are, but like I said, we're going to push the buttons that I think are working particularly well for each of the characters.  And again, I just hope the show becomes more and more, the best version of itself, though.  And I hope that the next year, we'll see that.

Moderator                   And our next question will come from Maggie Furlong with AOL.  Please go ahead.

M. Furlong                  Hey, JJ.  Thanks for taking the time.

JJ Abrams                    Yes, how's it going?

M. Furlong                  Pretty good.  So, how much do you really, truly understand about everything that happens on the show?

JJ Abrams                    On Fringe?

M. Furlong                  Yes.

JJ Abrams                    You mean in terms of the science?

M. Furlong                  Yes.

JJ Abrams                    Well, I've always, and I'm sure to a fault, been of the mind that if you have a cool idea that's compelling and crazy, that's the idea you follow, and then you do research to back it up.  There are occasions when research actually yields a story, but I have often found that that's not the case for me, that I'll have ideas here and there, but usually it's an idea that comes to the, okay, well, if that's the case, can someone blow up spontaneously?  Like, could that happen?  And then you end up working backwards and finding out that there are insane tests where people have applied microwaves to their -- and you're like, oh, okay, and then you just kind of go with whatever feels closest.  Fringe, ... these words, but Fringe was never intended as a course on any kind of physics or medicine or science.  It was always meant to just be a kind of fun, cool, and insane representation of what it feels like to live in a world where science seems to be limitless in what it can do. 

                                    The crazy thing about a show like Fringe is, as you're working on it, as you're writing about things that are insane, like a cold virus the size of a football, or whatever the hell you happen to be playing with that week, is invariably there will be a story online that you will see that is weirder than what you're writing, that actually happened.  Whether it's a body part that was grown, whether it's about something that was replaced, whether it's about somebody that came back to life, whether it's about some really weird spontaneous event, like it just seems like the weirdest part about Fringe is, as we work on it, pushing the envelope, kind of having fun for ourselves, inevitably there is some real life actual story that's reported that feels almost beyond what we're playing with. 

                                    I kind of feel like, yes, it's not, yes, it's fantasy, it's fiction, and yes, we're inspired by gut instinct much more than we are factual data, but I think that we all live in a moment where nothing surprises us any more, where almost anything that we would see online or in a paper, we would believe unless someone would whisper in my ear and said, by the way, that's ....  So I just want to feel that we are in that weird place where as crazy as Fringe is, we no longer need to look to the supernatural ghosts or aliens to feel like there is an unpredictable and terrifying enemy among us.  I think that we have made that enemy ourselves.

M. Furlong                  Thank you.

JJ Abrams                    Thank you.

Moderate                     Our next question is from Daniel Fienberg with Hitfix.com.

D. Fienberg                 Hey, JJ, thanks a lot for doing this.

JJ Abrams                    Thank you.

D. Fienberg                 I want to return to something you were talking about a couple questions ago about sort of not confounding the audience.  This past week began with a three or four minute monologue from Broyles, sort of catching viewers up, and there have been several episodes that have had similar expositional, in case you're just joining us, monologues.  Do you foresee a day at some point, next season maybe, hopefully, where you don't need to do that any more?

JJ Abrams                    Yes.  I can't say yes loud enough, fast enough, or with more passion.  There is nothing more crazy than having that sort of massive chunk of exposition thrown at you at the beginning of the story.  It is one of those things that I would love to avoid, and I think that sometimes the desire of either the producers, writers, network studio, wherever it comes from, to try and provide clarity, there is almost always the net result of confusing the hell out of people, like clarity looks like one thing on a script but is another thing ...  And I feel like those kind of monologues of exposition don't help anyone.  I mean, although, by the way, I think Lance delivers them beautifully and he's a wonderful actor, but I think any actor tasked with catching an audience up deserves a drink at the end of the day.

Moderator                   And our next question comes from Adam Morgan from fringetelevision.com.

A. Morgan                   Hey, by the way, I saw Trek last night and I'm going again tonight.  I loved it.

JJ Abrams                    God bless you, sir.  Thank you very much.

A. Morgan                   It's great.

JJ Abrams                    Thank you.

A. Morgan                   Anyway, now that we've seen Charlie and Broyles in this alternate reality, do you think we might run into, say, a still breathing John Scott over there?

JJ Abrams                    I would say that it'll be very difficult now that John's show got picked up.

A. Morgan                   Oh, that's right.

JJ Abrams                    But having said that, I'm very excited his show got picked up, and I do think that there will be some very interesting things happening, given this other place that you were referring to.  And again, it's part of the fun of the show and I think and hope that it will become one of the aspects of Fringe that again, make it incredibly unique, meaning my favorite kind of ideas are things where we work on them, we think, like, that there's no other show on TV that could do that weird thing.  Like that's my favorite kind of an idea.  And I just think that if you don't go for those, then the show becomes increasingly mundane and just disposable, but the more you can do something, even if it doesn't work, to try and do those things that feel specifically, that show.  So anyway, there are some things ... place that I think are going to continue that I think will ....

Moderator                   And the next question will come from Kate O'Hare, Tribune Media Services.

K. O'Hare                   Hey, JJ.

JJ Abrams                    Hey.

K. O'Hare                   One of the things that's always worked for me on the show since the beginning is Walter and his son.  It's like a little sitcom right inside the middle of an action adventure show.  What's been the thinking on developing that relationship as the show has gone on?

JJ Abrams                    Can you repeat that last part, I just -

K. O'Hare                   What's been the thinking about how to evolve that relationship, as the show has gone on?

JJ Abrams                    Thank you for the question.  I think that the father/son relationship was, at the very beginning, one of the things that got all of us excited, Alex and Bob and myself.  And one of the things that I think has happened over the course of this season is that there is a sort of sense of sort of facility of their relationship has increased.  There's no longer as much of a conflict between them as there was at the beginning. 

                                    Now granted, they've gotten to know each other and this is happening and they develop a rhythm, but one of the things that I think we're going to play with a little bit, which I think speaks to our sense of evolution of that relationship, is that there will be, I think, some issues between them and some sort of set back that I think will make their working together, frankly, a little bit more dynamic and a little bit more interesting, and not just so familiar and easygoing.  But I could not adore the actors, both Josh and John, more and I think they're wonderful together and I just think that when you give them more, when there are more sparks between them, I think it's that much more interesting.  So we're playing with that now.

Moderator                   And we have time for one more question, and that will come from Julia Diddy with Fancast.com.

J. Diddy                      Hi, JJ.  Thank you so much for your time today.

JJ Abrams                    Well, thank you.

J. Diddy                      My question is a silly one, but it's about the ZFP manifesto.  I'm probably overlooking something totally obvious, but I was wondering how Walter knows that the missing chapter pertained to ethics when his memory is so unreliable.  I love his character, but it doesn't seem like ethics are always a high priority for him.

JJ Abrams                    I think you're right, and I think that you'll see as we go you'll learn more about that background, including the manifesto.  One of the things about Walter that I think you could either say is a writer's convenience or conversely actually an interesting character trait, which is the untrustworthiness of his memory, that there is this sort of swiss cheese quality to it, which is not to say that there aren't pieces there, but without existing memory there are no holes.  Meaning, that I think that the fun of it is that he will have the ability to recall something, to understand something, but then not understand how it pertains to something else.  In fact, I have to say, part of my desire would be to see more of that, which is what we had more at the beginning of the year, that sense that Walter is on a track and he understands something, he's made a connection, but then he literally can't understand something as simple as how or where or when he did an experiment. 

                                    I remember when we did Regarding Henry and I went to a recovery center where people who had suffered brain trauma were in therapy and recovery, and there was a young man who had been in a bad motorcycle accident who was sitting doing some cognitive therapy, and they were showing him a book and there were simplistic line drawings of a dog, and he would say "dog," and they'd turn the page.  There was a tree, and he'd say "tree," and they'd turn the page, and there was a house.  He'd say "house."  They'd turn the page and there was a car, and he just stared at it, and he said, "I know those are tires and wheels.  I know that's a steering wheel.  I know you sit in it.  I know you go places in there.  I know that's how you drive, I even know how to drive," but he could not remember the word.  And after this long ... and he was searching, they said "car," and he said "car." And it was one of those things that has stuck with me that the idea that you can, depending on what you've been through, and you learn more about that next season on Fringe for Walter, but the idea that a very specific piece could be missing, right next to a piece that is there, is part of the way the brain actually works. 

                                    So it feels like it might be the convenience of storytelling, but I think when you're talking about a show like Fringe there's a certain kind of creative license you can take to tell stories and provide information.

Today's cuppa; mass quantities of coffee

Snowed under by deadlines today -- have to bang out a feature story on the upcoming second season of "Raising the Bar" on TNT -- so little blogging time.

But I hate to leave my Cuppers with empty mugs, so in the meantime, check out my new side gig, as an "guest eGuider" at eGuiders.com. It's a Web site that has "industry pros" -- I guess that means me, along with other, far more famous, folks -- recommend online videos.

If you happen to click on the main page today -- today being Tuesday -- you'll catch my latest recommendation, a spoof done by NYU students that mashes up "The Office" and "24."

Some of my previous picks can be found here. I'm particularly fond of the dancing cockatoo. Now, that's comedy...

See you later, keep sippin'!

Tonight's cuppa: decaf Barry's Irish breakfast tea

You never know when you're going to run into history.

Last week, in search of better cell reception, I wound up in an out-of-the-way hall on the first floor of the Los Angeles Times building, located on Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles, where I now have my office.

Like the other walls on the first floor -- and perhaps the other floors as well, but I haven't been upstairs yet, so I don't know for sure -- this one featured framed reprints of stories from Times' past. The tale on the two framed pages in front of me was a doozy.

On Oct. 1, 1910, a bomb planted by union activists collapsed a big chunk of the newspaper's headquarters, killing at least 20 and injuring many more. The story recounted how the surviving members of the staff rallied to put out a paper despite the devastation.

Click here for a YouTube video recounting the bombing and its political implications (which were considerable); here for the Wikipedia account; here for an account from the archives of the University of Southern California (USC); and here for the Times' own recollection of the event, on its anniversary in 2008.

It's a whopper of a tale, involving union unrest, private investigators, high-profile arrests, political intrigue and all sorts of machinations from famed lawyer Clarence Darrow.

Don't know about you, but this sounds like an HBO or Showtime movie just asking to be made, or maybe an AMC miniseries. Feel free to offer writing, directing and acting suggestions in the comments below.

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking "There Will Be Blood" writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson doing the same tasks here; with Sean Connery as Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis; Gary Sinise as celebrated private detective and former Secret Service agent William J. Burns, the "American Sherlock Holmes"; Ian McShane as labor-union leader Samuel Gompers; and Tim Robbins as Darrow.

As a bonus -- and at the suggestion of one of my Twitter followers who wanted to see what the insides of a major American newspaper looked like (while there still is one) -- I took my smartphone back out into the halls and shot the following pictures (click on image for larger version).

The story in question...

The famous "Globe Lobby"...

The LAT's eagle symbol...

A typical hallway...

The mural outside the cafeteria...

And lastly, just because I think they're cool, Art Deco mailboxes in a very Art Deco building...

Click here for the podcast version of my weekly appearance on Shaun Daily's TVTalk radio show on blog.talk.radio.com. I come in somewhere around the half-hour mark.

And yes, regarding watching"The Tudors" in high-definition for the first time, I can tell the difference between fake and real fur, and my fascination with embroidery caught even me by surprise.

Today's cuppa: PG Tips tea

This week, I put out a syndicated feature story on what keeps "Dirty Jobs" star Mike Rowe busy when he's not violating farm animals -- for more on that, click here -- or crawling into sewers.

He's on a mission to restore the respect and dignity to traditional work, so that one day in the future, welders, pipefitters, carpenters, pig farmers and heavy-machine operators can become the lead characters of glossy primetime network dramas, just like lawyers, doctors, cops, forensic investigators and spoiled rich teens.

Rowe is also the cover boy for this month's Outside Magazine -- click here to look at that -- proving that May is the Month of MikeRoweWorks.com.

Enjoy (and then get back to work, fer cripes' sake):

Mike Rowe pitches jobs, 'Dirty' and otherwise

By Kate O'Hare

©Zap2it

If you go to www.mikeroweWORKS.com, you're going to see "Dirty Jobs" host Mike Rowe, but he's not going to be talking about exploding toilets, chasing pigs or the intricacies of animal husbandry.

He's going to be talking about old-fashioned work, the kind you do with both your brain and your hands. The jobs may be dirty, but here, the dirt isn't the point; it's the dignity of the job.

With billions of dollars set to be poured into rebuilding America's infrastructure, new jobs will exist, but will unemployed sales consultants, computer programmers, middle managers and liberal-arts grads be able to fill them?

"You really think the 3 million jobs that our leaders are going to pull out of thin air are going to require a degree in music appreciation?" Rowe says. "It's not going to happen. They don't need philosophers and English majors right now; we need people that can build stuff."

But first, a little background.

In "Dirty Jobs," airing Thursdays on Discovery Channel, Rowe travels the nation in search of people who do the often tough, unpleasant and downright icky jobs that keep civilization running smoothly.

As both an on-site apprentice and TV explainer, Rowe also works very hard. But this wasn't what he wanted. His plan had been to avoid ideas that might become a big hit and work only enough to keep the coffers filled.

Then Rowe came up with the concept that became "Dirty Jobs," which recently celebrated its 200th grimy occupation.

"It got away from me," Rowe says. "I've worked every day for the last five years in a frickin' sewer.'"

Along the way, Rowe learned a lot about the hard work he'd been avoiding and about the vital, important and often lucrative jobs that were increasingly overlooked by career counselors in favor of higher education and jobs that didn't require physical labor.

Then he gave a speech at Grainger Industrial Supply in Chicago, a Fortune 500 company with $6.4 billion in sales in 2007.

"I spoke to their employees," he recalls, "about the changing definition of a good job and my perception of how hard work was essentially under siege, that the traditional notions of manual labor had taken it in the neck.

"I talked about my granddad and the fact that he was this eighth-grade dropout who eventually became a carpenter and electrician, a steamfitter and a pipe fitter, built the house I was born in without a blueprint.

"I said, 'Those guys, they're still out there. Many of them are probably in here right now. But no one's celebrating them, and they're not the role models that my granddad was.' "

Rowe graduated from Towson University in Maryland, so, he says, "It's a strange thing for me, because I did the college thing. I find myself in a weird spot, but I like it, because it allows me to be a fish out of water."

After the speech, he was talking to Grainger CEO James T. Ryan and learned that not only did the company face the usual economic pressures but that the pool of skilled workers on which they and their customers depended was shrinking, with fewer new workers and trade-school students.

"So he's talking," Rowe says, "saying that it seems pretty obvious that hard work needs a PR campaign, and that's essentially what I said. He said, 'That's what I want this company to do. I want Grainger to take a position in that exact area.' "

If the company did that itself, it would seem self-serving, so Rowe had an idea.

"I said, 'Isn't there some neutral place, some third-party place, where somebody is championing this cause?' He just looked at me and said, 'I'm the CEO of an $8 billion company; why do you think I'm standing backstage talking to you? No one's doing this. No one cares.'

"And I said, 'I think I care. And I'll spend some money, and I'll start a site.' "

The result is www.mikeroweWORKS.com, which Rowe envisions as a public forum and resource center for those seeking skilled-labor jobs or the training to get one.

"Even though the project may be 'shovel-ready,' " Rowe says, "the larger question is, 'Is the shovel operator shovel-ready?' Is he ready? Does he feel good about it?

"Or is it going to become an opportunity that he avails himself of because he has no other choice?"

And like "Dirty Jobs," which gets its ideas from its viewers, Rowe's new venture needs you.

"I built the framework," he says, "and I'm happy to blow the trumpet and make the calls, but I need help. I'm too busy to do this by myself, so I need corporate help, and I need you guys to think that fundamentally this idea is sound.

"The feedback has been great, and so we just keep fumbling forward."

Today's cuppa: plain coffee, little milk, little sugar

Fans of "Deadwood," David Milch's groundbreaking Western series for HBO, know Jim Beaver as Ellsworth, the irascible yet gentlemanly -- in his own profane way, like many folks on the show -- gold prospector who came to an unfortunate end, witnessed by his dog.

But Ellsworth's demise did nothing to slow down Beaver's career, as he can be seen concurrently as demon-hunter Bobby Singer on The CW's "Supernatural," airing Thursdays (the season finale airs next week); and as Sheriff Charlie Mills on the CBS mystery/drama limited series "Harper's Island," airing Saturdays (which, incidentally, also stars Katie Cassidy, who used to play the demon Ruby on "Supernatural" -- not to be confused with Irish actress Elaine Cassidy, who plays Mills' daughter on "Harper's Island).

He's also a screenwriter, a playwright and an author, with a new memoir, "Life's That Way." It's based on a series of e-mails that chronicles Beaver's efforts to deal with his wife Cecily's cancer diagnosis and death, and being a now-single father to their autistic daughter, Maddie.

Born in Wyoming as the son of a minister, Beaver spent much of his childhood and adolesence in Texas. He also voluneered for the Marine Corps and was active in the Marine Reserve until 1976. His acting career involves stage, film and television (including writing episodes for such TV shows as "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Tour of Duty").

Since Beaver is a writer, I asked him to pen some answers to questions, which are below. Enjoy.

Q: It must have been quite a switch from two David Milch series -- "Deadwood" and "John From Cincinnati" -- to a thriller like "Supernatural." Was it a shock to the system or were you ready for a change?

A: It was a big change just having a complete script ahead of time!  On David's shows, the scripts famously are written at the last second and one sometimes comes to work not knowing what the scenes will be.  "Supernatural" is much more typical in that sense.  There's always plenty of time with the material, to learn it and digest it.  I've gotten very good at working Milch's way, but the other way is much less terrifying!  As to the shows themselves, it wasn't really a shock.  The work is always the same in one sense:  you're always trying to illustrate human behavior, human attitudes, human needs.  That's the same on an old West street or in house full of devil's traps.  Only the scenery and the plots are different.  There's more zombies on "Supernatural," I guess, but that goes with the territory.

Q: As a former Marine (and I know there are no ex-Marines), what did you learn in the Corps that has served you best in Hollywood?

A: I guess the biggest thing I learned in the Corps that was useful in Hollywood was the old slogan, "They can kill you but they can't eat you."   (Frankly, I think they can eat you in Hollywood, but it's still a useful attitude.)  And I learned confidence in the Marines, something that occasionally pays off in Hollywood. And a lot of my early work came about because I'd been in the military and had that experience, so that was helpful, too.

Q: Might you ever write a "Supernatural" episode?

A: I've always said no to that notion, because I think the writers on Eric's team already are the best at writing this show, and I generally prefer to write projects that grow out of my own personal interests or ideas.  I have several pet projects that I want to write that have nothing to do with "Supernatural."   But lately I've had an idea for a SPN story that I might pitch to Eric sometime.  The fact is, though, he's almost certainly got a story arc lined out for this next season and my idea probably wouldn't fit into that arc very well, unless he's got room for a non-arc story somewhere along the line.  I think Eric and the gang will get along fine without my help.  But never say never.

Q: What's your relationship like with show stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles? A trio of Texans!

A: I don't have the same relationship with Jared and Jensen that Bobby has with Sam and Dean.  We're much more on an even level, as far as I'm concerned.  There's no sense that I'm older and wiser, like there is with Bobby, no sense that Jim ever needs to straighten the two youngsters out like there sometimes is with Bobby.  We're three friends and colleagues, and I think there's a lot of mutual respect that goes along with the friendship.  If anything, I come to them for advice.  It's great being a trio of Texans, since it gives us all kind of that feeling of knowing the "secret handshake," you know? 

Q: I just had a great conversation with Elaine Cassidy of "Harper's Island" from Dublin. What was it like working with her?

A: Well, I once told Elaine that I hope my little girl grows up to be like her, so that probably gives you an idea of my feelings about Elaine.  She's a delight, a professional from the tips of her toes, and a sweet, warm-hearted, and generous girl, and there wasn't a scene I did with her that didn't stretch my boundaries as an actor.  I felt very lucky to have her as my TV daughter, and I think we developed a great affection for each other over the course of the show.

Q: How has assembling your memoir helped you deal with the challenges it talks about?

A: In some ways, so much of the challenges depicted in my book had faded somewhat into the past in the five years since those events.  Putting the book together brought them all back to vivid reality, and I confess it wasn't easy going through that material as many times as was necessary in order to edit it.  The original manuscript is three times longer than the finished book, and every word had to be reexamined and reevaluated, since it wasn't possible to keep everything.  That meant many, many passages through the material, and a re-experiencing of many of the emotions.  I'm not sure I was fully prepared for that.  But, as happened with the original emails on which it's based, there's a catharsis that comes with seeing one's emotions and troubles laid out on paper, and some of the lessons I hoped  to share with the book got reinforced in me, as well, by going over them again.

Q: As a writer, what have you gained from working closely with David Milch and "Supernatural" executive producer Eric Kripke, who come from very different screenwriting worlds?

A: From David, I think I've learned a great deal about boldness, about being unafraid to tackle big themes and big emotions, and to keep in the forefront the importance and value writing can have, and not waste my energy on trivialities.  From Eric, I've learned that relationships are a much better engine for a show than scares and special effects, and that people may love to be spooked, but what they really want from a show is to be moved.

Q: This year's "Supernatural" touched on very large themes of good and evil, God and man, much as "Deadwood" and "John From Cincinnati" both did. Do you ponder those issues yourself?

A: I guess I don't spend as much time thinking about such issues as I do playing them!  The issues that are touched on in those shows are all huge and complex, and I'm kind of a simple guy in some respects.  I certainly pay attention to my own behavior, and try to inculcate good and moral behavior in my daughter, but I'm not much of a philosopher. 

Q: What's next -- another acting job, a screenplay, a novel? A nap?

A: A nap would be great.  About a week long, I think.  I don't have another acting gig lined up yet.  I'm sure something will come along.  I've got a screenplay and a novel in the works, as well as my ongoing biography of George Reeves, the first TV Superman, a project that's been a pleasant but persistent albatross around my neck for far too long.  But I'm awfully slow, and awfully easily distract--- oh, look, a bird!

Today's cuppa: chai tea latte

Fashions come and go, but one thing endures, America loves a cowboy. So, while I was initially as surprised as anyone that rapper and talented dancer Lil' Kim got the boot over rodeo star Ty Murray last night on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," upon reflection, it makes perfect sense.

A lot of American men would love to be Ty Murray; a lot of American women would love to be Jewel.

Murray's a fearless competitor (he rides bulls, fer Pete's sake), a lovable doofus (albeit one who's purty darned ripped, I must say), a decent guy by all accounts, and a doting husband.

Shoot, sign me up for that one.

As much as The Dream That Was Woz captured the hearts of every geek ever left at the sidelines of the high-school dance, Murray represents that guy who thinks dancing is kind of girly but will try it anyway to please the love of his life.

Every weekend, they can be seen at weddings, black-tie events, line-dancing competitions and father-daughter balls across America, sucking it up and hitting the floor for their ladies.

To top it all off, Murray's an honest-to-goodness COWBOY, hat, boots and all.

And at the end of his last dance on Monday -- not his best -- he swooped across the floor and grabbed up his wife, singer Jewel (unable to compete in the show because of a bad injury early on), into his arms.

I grinned so wide I nearly did myself an injury. Look at the picture. I'm not alone in this.

Here's where "Dancing" truly diverges from "American Idol." It's not really about talent; it's about touching the hearts of the audience. You can do that with dancing dazzle -- no one doubts that talent (and good looks) helped Brooke Burke win last year -- but terpichorean skills alone are only paramount to the judges.

The folks at home like a good show. They also want to smile. They want to feel happy for someone else.

""Dancing With the Stars" is also not about launching a professional career (but Lil' Kim has certainly broadened her appeal with the effort).

It's about trying something that scares you to death and may leave you looking like an idiot -- but trying it anyway.

Ride 'em, Cowboy Ty.

Today's cuppa: As soon as I finish this post, cafeteria coffee. Gotta bring the Tassimo in tomorrow

KateOH

Following up on the first post of the day about NBC's "infront" announcement of new shows to select advertisers, I just Twittered my gut reactions to clips of the pilots or presentations.

For the huge numbers of my Cuppers who don't yet Twitter, here they are:

"Community": For all sorts of personal reasons, I'm inclined to like this. But I think I'd like it anyway.

100 Questions": Bridget Jones tries online dating, goes on voyage of self-discovery. *yawn* And a couch.

"Mercy": Nurses kick butt, take names, save lives. "China Beach" at home. Plus Michelle Trachtenberg.

"Mercy," part two: Not one Filipino-American nurse as a lead, none w/accents. Not really my experience.

"Mercy," part three: But nurses are awesome, at least they show that.

"Trauma": Thump! Boom! Crash! "We don't have a moment.." It's "24," AFTER the casualties. Mild interest.

"Parenthood": I don't care, but then I'm not a parent, so I guess that's not surprising. Meh.

"Day One" Just a behind-the-scenes shooting clip of dusty people running, wrecked cars, debris. Uh, nah.

Today's cuppa: Barry's Irish breakfast tea

Scroll down for NBC's "Chuck"-free "infront" announcement for this fall (looks like we'll have to wait on that one until Christmas Morning -- a k a May 19 -- after all. Not going to the mats for it in the meantime, though).

I haven't seen any of the new shows, so I don't have a lot of gut reactions to what I'm reading -- happy, though, to see "Southland" getting an extension, but that news came out a while ago -- except for this show.

I've got a very definite reaction to this "event series" planned to launch after the 2010 Winter Olympics...

DAY ONE
From executive producer/writer Jesse Alexander ("Heroes," "Lost," "Alias") and director Alex Graves ("Fringe," "Journeyman"), "Day One" tells the story of life on earth following a global catastrophe that has devastated the world's infrastructures. Beginning with the immediate aftermath of the cataclysmic event, an eclectic band of survivors -- played by Adam Campbell ("Date Movie"), Catherine Dent ("The Shield"), Julie Gonzalo ("Eli Stone"), David Lyons ("ER"), Derek Mio ("Greek"), Carly Pope ("24"), Thekla Reuten ("Sleeper Cell") and Addison Timlin ("Cashmere Mafia") -- strives to rebuild society as they unravel the mysteries of what happened and face their uncertain future. The group, all residents of one apartment building in suburban Van Nuys, Calif., embarks on a quest for survival and discovers that hope is found in small victories -- and heroes are born every day. "Day One" is a Universal Media Studios production.

Unless the real world gets a whole lot happier by early next year, I'd rather eat worms than watch a post-apocalyptic drama of any sort. Unlike a thriller such as "24," which plays in such a quick time frame and with such outrageous plot twists that it only hits reality glancing blows at best, this promises to walk us through the aftermath of disaster step by step.

It's listed as an "event series," which probably means it's intended for a limited run, and that's a plus.

The plan may be to make "Day One" feel epic and heroic and uplifting, but right at this moment in time, I'd rather hear real stories of how people are coping with the actual catastrophes that are unfolding all around us than to watch a bunch of fictional people dealing with invented ones.

(Let me guess, it's all Dick Cheney's fault. Hey, you know Dick Cheney's gotta come in there somewhere. I swear many Hollywood screenwriters frighten their children into bed with threats that Dick Cheney's gonna get 'em. But anyhoo...)

I'll try to remain open-minded until I see the show, but my gut check right now says that I don't even want to open the DVD. Am I alone in this? Vote!

UPDATE: Click here for Zap2it's guide to the new shows (with photos); click here for TV Week's (with clips); click here for a post with the gut reactions to clips of the new shows, that I originally posted on Twitter.

NBC ANNOUNCES AMBITIOUS LINEUP OF PROGRAMMING DOMINATED BY NEW SCRIPTED SERIES FOR 2009-2010 PRIMETIME SEASON THAT EXTENDS THE NETWORK'S QUALITY BRAND
Published: May 4, 2009

New Series Include Four Dramas: "Trauma," "Parenthood," "Mercy" and the Event Series "Day One" as Well as Two Comedies: "Community" and "100 Questions"

Returning Series Pickups Include "Heroes," "Southland," "Parks and Recreation" and Six New Episodes of "Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday"

NEW YORK CITY -- May 4, 2009 -- NBC unveiled today a strong lineup of broad and diverse quality programming for the 2009-2010 television season announcing the pickups of six new series featuring four new dramas including "Trauma," "Parenthood," "Mercy" and the event series "Day One," as well as two new comedies including "Community" and "100 Questions." Four returning series pickups were also announced today including "Heroes," "Southland," "Parks and Recreation" and the addition of six new episodes of "Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday" skewering today's top stories in live half-hour primetime shows.

The new and returning series will launch next season and the epic event series "Day One" is slated to premiere out of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

"The Jay Leno Show" will be broadcast Monday-Fridays, 10-11 p.m. ET beginning in the fall. Previously announced series pickups include "The Office," "30 Rock," "The Biggest Loser," "The Celebrity Apprentice," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "Friday Night Lights," and new alternative series "The Marriage Ref," "Breakthrough With Tony Robbins" and "Who Do You Think You Are?"

Additional series pickups will be announced May 19, when NBC announces its 2009-2010 schedule.

NBC unveiled pickups for the upcoming broadcast season in the first of a series of presentations today and tomorrow to key advertisers from Studio 8H--the home of NBC's "Saturday Night Live"--at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. Presentations will continue in Chicago on May 7 and Los Angeles on May 12.

"We are thrilled to be announcing such an awesome slate of new series that build on our existing quality brand and deliver emotional, human stories," said Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios. "NBC will strive to make viewers feel and our shows represent the full range of human emotion from laughter to tears. We can't wait to share these concepts with our audience and our advertising partners."

"These new series will showcase fresh talent and bold, original concepts that are extremely well executed," said Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios. "We are grateful to the producers, casts and crews -- and our team -- who have delivered incredibly compelling and entertaining new series."

In response to an evolving media marketplace and the changing needs of advertisers, NBC has created a more innovative, client-centric approach to its traditional Upfront with a series of one-on-one client presentations, which began today in New York City. These presentations are interactive and, unlike other networks' Upfront presentations, will include a Q & A with advertisers and NBC sales and entertainment executives.

NBC will also host advertisers and affiliates at a "Night of Comedy" featuring appearances by some of its biggest comedy stars including Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Rainn Wilson and Tracy Morgan on Tuesday, May 19 in New York City.

Detailed new series descriptions are listed below.

2009-2010 NEW SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

New Dramas

PARENTHOOD
From the executive producers of the box-office hit "Parenthood" -- Ron Howard and Brian Grazer (Oscar winners for "A Beautiful Mind"), and writer/executive producer Jason Katims ("Friday Night Lights") -- this contemporary re-imagining of the blockbuster film depicts the colorful and imperfect Braverman family -- four grown siblings sharing the headaches, heartaches and joy of being parents. The star-studded cast includes Peter Krause, Maura Tierney, Craig T. Nelson, Dax Shepard, Bonnie Bedelia, Monica Potter, Erika Christensen and Sarah Ramos. When Sarah Braverman (Tierney, "ER"), a financially strapped single mother, returns home to her parents and siblings in Berkeley, Calif. after packing up her Fresno apartment and uprooting her two inconvenienced kids, Amber (Mae Whitman, "In Treatment") and Drew (Miles Heizer, "ER"), she is greeted by her opinionated father, Zeek (Nelson, "Family Stone," "Coach"), and strong mother, Camille (Bedelia, "Heart Like a Wheel"), who are privately dealing with their own marital issues. As Sarah is reunited with her siblings -- sister, Julia (Christensen, "Traffic"), and brothers Crosby (Shepard, "Baby Mama") and Adam (Krause, "Six Feet Under") -- all struggling with issues of their own, it's clear that the Braverman reunion is just what they need to face the everyday challenges of modern family life. "Parenthood" is a production from Imagine Entertainment and Universal Media Studios. Emmy winner Thomas Schlamme ("The West Wing") directs the pilot.

TRAUMA
Executive producer Peter Berg (NBC's "Friday Night Lights") delivers "Trauma," the first high-octane medical drama series to live exclusively in the field where the real action is. Like an adrenaline shot to the heart, "Trauma" is an intense, action-packed look at one of the most dangerous medical professions in the world: first responder paramedics. When emergencies occur, the trauma team from San Francisco General is first on the scene, traveling by land, by sea or by air to reach their victims in time. From the heights of the city's Transamerica Pyramid to the depths of the San Francisco Bay, these heroes must face the most extreme conditions to save lives -- and give meaning to their own existence in the process. Starring in "Trauma" are Derek Luke ("Notorious"), Cliff Curtis ("10,000 B.C"), Anastasia Griffith ("Damages"), Aimee Garcia ("George Lopez"), Kevin Rankin ("Friday Night Lights") and Jamey Sheridan ("Law & Order: Criminal Intent"). "Trauma" is a production of Universal Media Studios and Film 44. Berg, Sarah Aubrey ("Bad Santa," "Friday Night Lights"), Dario Scardapane and Jeffrey Reiner ("Friday Night Lights") serve as executive producers. The pilot was written by Scardapane and directed by Reiner.

MERCY
"Mercy," a new medical drama with a unique point of view, portrays the lives of the staff at Mercy Hospital as seen through the eyes of those who know it best -- its nurses. Nurse Veronica Callahan (Taylor Schilling, "Dark Matter") returns to Mercy from a military tour in Iraq -- and she knows more about medicine than all of the residents combined. Together with fellow nurses Sonia Jimenez (Jamie Lee Kirchner, "Rescue Me") and Chloe Payne (Michelle Trachtenberg, "Gossip Girl"), Callahan navigates through the daily traumas and social landmines of life and love both inside the hospital and out in the real world. The cast also includes: James Tupper ("Men in Trees") as Dr. Chris Sands, a new doctor at the hospital who complicates Veronica's life; Diego Klattenhoff ("Supernatural") as Mike Callahan, Veronica's husband; and Guillermo Diaz ("Weeds") as Nurse Angel Lopez. "Mercy" is a production from Universal Media Studios and Berman Braun. Joining writer/executive producers Liz Heldens (NBC's "Friday Night Lights") and Gretchen Berg & Aaron Harberts ("Pushing Daisies," "Pepper Dennis") are executive producers Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun. Emmy Award winner Adam Bernstein (NBC's "30 Rock," "Rescue Me") is the director.

DAY ONE
From executive producer/writer Jesse Alexander ("Heroes," "Lost," "Alias") and director Alex Graves ("Fringe," "Journeyman"), "Day One" tells the story of life on earth following a global catastrophe that has devastated the world's infrastructures. Beginning with the immediate aftermath of the cataclysmic event, an eclectic band of survivors -- played by Adam Campbell ("Date Movie"), Catherine Dent ("The Shield"), Julie Gonzalo ("Eli Stone"), David Lyons ("ER"), Derek Mio ("Greek"), Carly Pope ("24"), Thekla Reuten ("Sleeper Cell") and Addison Timlin ("Cashmere Mafia") -- strives to rebuild society as they unravel the mysteries of what happened and face their uncertain future. The group, all residents of one apartment building in suburban Van Nuys, Calif., embarks on a quest for survival and discovers that hope is found in small victories -- and heroes are born every day. "Day One" is a Universal Media Studios production.

New Comedies

100 QUESTIONS (formerly known as "100 Questions for Charlotte Payne")
Emmy winner James Burrows ("Will & Grace," "Friends") directs "100 Questions," a new comedy series written and executive-produced by Christopher Moynihan ("For Your Consideration") that provides hilarious answers to 100 questions about love. Charlotte Payne (Sophie Winkleman, "Peep Show") is looking for love and has rejected multiple marriage proposals -- but she has yet to meet Mr. Right. When she joins a popular online dating site, she gets a little help from her dating counselor Ravi (Amir Talai, "The Ex List") -- who requires her to take a 100-question compatibility test. The questions aren't easy for Charlotte to answer, and each one requires her to recount a poignant and humorous time in her life with friends Leslie (Elizabeth Ho, "Women's Murder Club"), Jill (Joy Suprano, NBC's "Law & Order"), Mike (Christopher Moynihan "For Your Consideration") and Wayne (David Walton "Quarterlife"). The test becomes a journey of self-discovery for Charlotte who begins to realize what she truly wants in a relationship. Ron West ("Psych"), Kelly Kulchak ("Psych") and Michelle Nader ("King of Queens") join Moynihan as executive producers. The series is produced by Universal Media Studios and Tagline.

COMMUNITY
From Emmy Award-winning directors Joe and Anthony Russo ("Arrested Development") comes "Community," a smart comedy series about higher education -- and lower expectations. The student body at Greendale Community College is made up of high-school losers, newly divorced housewives, and old people who want to keep their minds active. Within these not-so-hallowed halls, "Community" focuses on a band of misfits, at the center of which is a fast-talkin' lawyer whose degree has been revoked (Joel McHale, "The Soup"), who form a study group and end up learning a lot more about themselves than they do about their course work. In addition to McHale, the series also stars: Gillian Jacobs ("The Book of Daniel"); Yvette Nicole Brown ("Rules of Engagement"); Danny Pudi ("Greek"); Alison Brie ("Mad Men"); and comedy legend Chevy Chase ("Saturday Night Live"). "Community" is a Krasnoff Foster Entertainment, Harmonious Claptrap and Russo Brothers production in association with Sony Pictures Television and Universal Media Studios. Russ Krasnoff ("The Soloist"), Dan Harmon ("The Sarah Silverman Program"), Joe Russo ("Arrested Development"), Anthony Russo ("Arrested Development") and Gary Foster ("The Soloist") serve as executive producers. Joe and Anthony Russo directed the pilot that was written by Dan Harmon.

Today's cuppa: raspberry Ceylon tea

When the cast and crew of CBS' "Numb3rs" gathered for cake and non-alcoholic fizzy drinks to celebrate the show's 100th episode (previously chronicled in this blog post) Rob Morrow didn't exactly look to be dressed for a party -- more like a Sunday afternoon spent watching the game.

"We're so under-appreciated in the media, in the industry," Morrow said. "We get no love. I'm not a flag-waver or into self-celebration, but I have no problem standing up and celebrating us, because we don't get it. The Friday-night thing is constantly referred to as the dead zone. In the age of TiVo, it doesn't matter. Our numbers are bigger than a lot of midweek shows.