
But in our parking lot, speed and go to hell:

Speaking of going to hell, Stewie was spotted in San Francisco:

Sometimes random thoughts on life and entertainment swirl together in my little brain and try to collide into one cohesive idea.
The surgeons and interns from Seattle Grace Hospital have turned the tables on Dr. Gregory House, as CTV's drama Grey's Anatomy became the most-watched show in primetime last week, hitting nearly 2.8 million (2+) viewers compared to 1.6 million for House on Global.It marks a sharp contrast to premiere week last month, when House grabbed a series high 3.3 million viewers in its Tuesday 9 p.m. timeslot versus 2.5 million for Grey's, which airs Thursdays at 9 p.m.
For a brief moment, it made me question the Honorary Canadian designation for my favourite fictional doctor. Were Canadians getting tired of the uncanny similarities between House and themselves? Would I have to write something about Dr. McDreamy being secretly Canadian?
The surgeons and interns from Seattle Grace Hospital were a popular choice on the dial last week, as CTV's drama Grey's Anatomy was the most-watched show in primetime, hitting nearly 2.8 million (2+) viewers. Grey's has the baseball playoffs to thank, since House, number one the previous week, was preempted by U.S. broadcaster Fox due to baseball pennant games, forcing Global to air a repeat episode. It nabbed 1.6 million viewers.It marks a sharp contrast to premiere week last month, when House grabbed a series high 3.3 million viewers in its Tuesday 9 p.m. timeslot versus 2.5 million for Grey's, which airs Thursdays at 9 p.m.
A script order does not guarantee a show an order for more episodes, the media reported. But an order for an additional script is often the first step to ordering an additional episode, the news stories noted, because a script most often is written before an episode is shot -- except, of course, in the case of Fox's 24 and ABC's Lost.
That 5-month strike helped to create the TV world we live with today, where the TV audience is smaller and more fragmented. With many shows forced into perpetual reruns and ending their seasons early, a chunk of the audience either tuned out or switched over to non-union shows, and never really came back.
But in spite of reigning pessimism, the WGA’s Kirgo believes that the industry learned a lesson from 1988, namely that a prolonged strike could do irreparable damage to both sides. "I think everybody is going to come to their senses. I honestly believe that they will not let another strike happen."
While I think the IR channel-changer thingamabob probably got smushed in the move (excuse the technical jargon) and it would have been a simple matter of replacing that, I figured it was an opportune time to buy a real PVR. As much as I loved my inexpensive computer-based device and got some satisfaction in figuring out how to make it work (until it didn't), I love the real PVR even more.
The ability to pause and rewind live TV, to record two shows at once without buying another thingamajig, and, of course, to watch TV on my TV easily: it's an exciting new toy. But it's also made me make think more consciously about some of my viewing habits.
I'd heard that a surprising number of people with TiVo and TiVo-like devices watch commercials, and scoffed. But it turns out I often find myself watching the commercials while watching recorded shows. Why? Because I forget I'm watching a recording. Plus, with very few must-see-every-minute exceptions, I'm always doing something else while watching TV: posting, browsing, reading, writing, cooking, cleaning, chatting, whatever. Sometimes I forget I'm watching TV, never mind that I'm watching recorded TV.
Another thing I've learned -- a lesson I need to learn every September -- is that my eyes are bigger than my ... eyes. My PVR started the season promising to record House, The Office, 30 Rock, Ugly Betty, Rick Mercer Report, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Intelligence, Life, Dirty Sexy Money, Pushing Daisies, Bionic Woman, Blood Ties, K-Ville, Back to You, Gossip Girl, Journeyman, Reaper, Chuck, Moonlight, and Aliens in America.
It was so easy to tell my PVR to record them all. It wasn't so easy to watch them all.
Technology is making it easier and easier to bring more and more television into my living room. It's also giving me more and more things to do other than watch television. In my couch-based downtime, posting, podcasting, iPodding, Photoshopping are some of the many p's competing with the PVR.
So I had to do another "p": pare down. Maybe some of those pilots I reviewed got better with time. Maybe some of those shows I'd heard were good would have captured my attention. But in a cluttered world, a cluttered PVR is one inconsequential stress I don't need. It's ruthless, but if a show didn't stand out before it even aired, or if the pilot didn't grab me and shake me and never let me go, there's no room in my life or on my PVR.
So I've settled on recording House, Pushing Daisies, Intelligence, The Office, and 30 Rock, and everything else I'll catch if I'm home in a TV kind of mood. And I hate to say it, but The Office is teetering on the precipice after tonight.
Thankfully, as easy as it is to record with my new PVR, it's just as easy to delete.
As the opening credits state, networks commission hundreds of scripts each year, only a small fraction of which are produced as pilots. Of that small fraction, only a quarter are picked up for the fall season. The TV Set is the story of one such pilot.
Written and directed by Jake Kasdan (Orange County), it's executive produced by his dad Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill) as well as Judd Apatow (Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, Knocked Up), a man who knows something about the struggle to make quality television.
David Duchovny plays Mike Klein, the writer of what I presume is supposed to be a drama with comedic overtones. In his original script, a young man and woman reconnect when he returns home for the funeral of his brother, who committed suicide. The network head, a deliciously horrible Sigourney Weaver, whose favoured child is the reality show Slut Wars, pushes for a broadly comedic lead actor, fears the audience will think suicide is depressing, and complains the character's mother comes across as too sad. About her dead son.
Klein finds his soul and his show chipped away at bit by bit, as he moans "I'm making the world more mediocre" to his very pregnant wife (Justine Bateman), who is supportive with limits. Her bulging belly makes him acutely aware that taking a bold creative stand won't support his family. Judy Greer, Ioan Gruffudd, and Lucy Davis are among the other familiar faces in the cast.
The TV Set is the fictional story of one script's journey through the pilot process, and I happened to see it just as we're seeing the successes and failures -- mostly failures, it looks like -- of the current crop of pilots-become-series, and just as I've become aware of the first news about pilots for the next television season.
One such announcement shocks me as much as it thrills me. John Doyle of the Globe and Mail breaks the news that Intelligence is being remade as a pilot for FOX, co-produced by Canada's own Haddock Entertainment and John Wells Productions (yes, the John Wells who broke my beloved West Wing, but even I can't deny his track record).
Since Intelligence was a surprise second-season renewal after suffering from low ratings even for a CBC series, and is more akin to The Wire, a critically acclaimed show that hasn't been a ratings blockbuster for Showtime, than to 24, I would never have guessed Kevin Reilly would see it the potential for success on his network. But since it will have to be retooled drastically for an American viewpoint anyway, I'm sure it will end up bearing little resemblance to The Wire and more to, say, a John Wells production. And all 17 Canadians who watched Intelligence here can feel superior that we embraced the original, more intelligent version.
However, bearing in mind the lesson of The TV Set, the fact that a pilot has been ordered is a far different thing from a guarantee that the show will wind up on the FOX schedule.
The second announcement should probably make me happier than it does. It seems the USA network is turning Thank You For Smoking into a series. According to the annoyingly written Variety:
TV take -- which will likely go by a different title -- will pick up where the 2006 feature left off. Nick Naylor, having kicked some of his more evil lobbyist habits, will use his rhetorical skills to help people more deserving of aid. ... "He'll live somewhere between the morally ambiguous character of the movie and Robin Hood," said USA programming chief Jeff Wachtel.I loved Thank You For Smoking, but it was a brilliantly complete film, I thought. A lesson I learned from my childhood obsession with Anne of Green Gables is that a great work is not improved on by going back to the well over and over again, and by the time you get to Rilla of Ingleside, the magic has been sucked out.
More importantly, I don't want to see Nick Naylor as Robin Hood. And after watching The TV Set, it's hard to have faith that the show will end up being faithful to the vision of the original creator. That is, if the idea makes it to script, and then to pilot, and then to series, so it's a little early to be worrying about it now.