The 2006 Emmy Awards
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Award Shows, Comedy, Drama, ABC, CBS, NBC, 24, Amazing Race, The, Daily Show, The, Desperate Housewives, Entourage, Grey’s Anatomy, House, King of Queens, My Name Is Earl, Scrubs, Talent, The Office, West Wing, The, Features,
As some of you might remember, TV Envy brought you live remarks during the 2006 Oscars. I had so much fun last time - I thought I would do it again for the 58th Annual Emmy Awards. Unfortunately, since I live on the West Coast, live blogging is not possible. I could cheat and write this while reading the online reports—but I won’t. I will keep my eyes focused on the TV screen before me and make catty remarks as I think of them in Pacific Standard Time.
Although I’m still a bit bitter that neither Lost or Desperate Housewives were nominated this year (apparently due to the recent changes in the nomination process), my annual viewing must go on. If someone can manage to eke out a win for either Entourage, The Office or Scrubs, I may be able to forgive and forget.
Okay—let the time-delayed festivities begin!
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Gallery: The 2006 Emmy Awards
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Forest Whitaker, Busy Philipps Join ER
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Drama, Prime Time, FX, NBC, UPN, ER,
Andre Bauer, who was unable to fulfill his commitment to the drama ER, has been replaced by Forest Whitaker. Whitaker will play a man who comes into the ER with a cough, but quickly faces a paralyzing stroke—his story arc will take place over five episodes. Whitaker continues to be busy with the FX series The Shield, returning for at least the first two episodes of the next season. Whitaker is most famous for his many film roles, including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Platoon, The Crying Game and The Panic Room. He’ll make a great addition to ER, now entering it’s 25th season (seriously, how long has this show been on?!).
Busy Philipps will also join the cast of ER with a recurring role as an intern. You may remember Philipps from the short-lived, but well-regarded Freaks and Geeks. She was also seen last season on the UPN sitcom Love, Inc.
Read More 
| Zap2it
Gallery: Forest Whitaker, Busy Philipps Join ER
Cast Reductions Announced for SNL
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Comedy, Late Night, NBC, Saturday Night Live, News,
Since a press conference last month where Lorne Michaels announced upcoming cuts from the Saturday Night Live cast, many have been speculating about who would be going. Zap2it.com is reporting that at least three members of the cast will be leaving, with the likelihood for a fourth to depart as well. At present, it’s reported that Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz and Kenan Thompson have been tapped to leave. Discussions of a fourth casualty are circulating about Darrell Hammond, who has had the longest run on the show. Hammond brings his impmeccable impressions to the table (including Donald Trump and Bill Clinton), but perhaps little new material. Horatio Sanz has been riding the SNL gravy train for far too long, as has Parnell—I’m most surprised by Kenan Thompson, who seemed to be featured in a lot of sketches last season. The fate of SNL‘s Weekend Update is also a hot topic, as Lorne Michaels auditioned cast members to take over for Tina Fey, who recently left the show, and Amy Poehler. It’s rumored that new cast member Jason Sudeikis (pictured at right) will be taking over the Update desk. Of course, none of this is confirmed—an NBC spokesman declined to comment.
Read More | Zap2it
Gallery: Cast Reductions Announced for SNL
Here’s some good news for fans of both Scrubs and musicals—the series’ sixth episode this season will be a musical. For non-musical fans, this may not be such a great thing, but I’m curious to see how they pull it off. TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello had the opportunity to interview Scubs creator Bill Lawrence about the episode. Apparently, Lawrence called on the talent behind the Broadway musical Avenue Q to help out with the logisitics, which he calls “a big pain in the ass”—with additional rehearsals and recordings necessary to pull the whole thing off. Scrubs diehards are likely to think this is a genius move, since the series already incorporates its fair share of music and dancing (anyone catch Turk’s air guitar number?). The cast is for the most part excited about the prospect, with only some grumblings from Sarah Chalke—according to Lawrence, she’s not allowed to sing (I guess she’s not as good as the other cast members), but he needs to find a way to incorporate her character into the whole musical madness. The plot of the episode centers around a woman who has an aneurism and sees everything as a musical. According to Lawrence, this is based on an actual medical case where a woman who suffered an aneurism thought every time someone spoke to her, they were singing. Now the question—when will the episode air? With the series not set to start until mid-season, we will need to wait until early 2007 to check this out.
Read More | TV Guide
Gallery: Scrubs: The Musical?
Fewer Gay Roles This Season
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Comedy, Prime Time, ABC, NBC, Showtime, Degrassi, Desperate Housewives, ER, The Office,
The ending of Will & Grace has taken away two gay roles from our boob tubes this season—and those who care about equal representation for gays should be concerned.
Did you know that of all the regular characters on major networks last year, less than 2% of them in primetime were gay, lesbian or bisexual? And the numbers don’t fare much better this year. GLAAD (The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) has been analyzing the numbers for several seasons now. Of the 95 Fall shows announced so far (for ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CW and MyNetworkTV), only 9 of the regular characters are gay or lesbian. That’s down one from last year. In other words, out of the 679 roles—only 1.3% are homosexual.
Keep in mind—this study only applies to the major networks. Maybe that’s why cable is increasing in popularity. We need to turn to shows like The L Word and Degrassi to see greater diversity.
Trivia question: Of the 9 gay/lesbian roles this fall—only 3 are from returning shows. What are those shows? Answer: Desperate Housewives (Andrew), ER (Carrie) and The Office (Oscar - the closeted gay).
Read More | Houston Chronicle
Gallery: Fewer Gay Roles This Season
Zach Braff Leaving Scrubs?
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Comedy, Prime Time, NBC, Scrubs, News,
Say it ain’t so… the rumor mill is buzzing about the possibility of Zach Braff leaving after this season of Scrubs. Braff was quoted in Premiere magazine, saying “My guess is that this will be my last season. Whether or not they continue without me, I don’t know. I have had this amazing run on the show and I love it and I’m so grateful, but I want to make movies full time.” Well, that sounds fairly official—coming from the horse’s mouth and all. Part of me, however, doesn’t want to believe it could be true. Scrubs has been such a reliably funny show, in large part because of Braff. While the ensemble is a strong group, I’m not sure if the series could continue to be as good without Braff’s character. Then again, there’s speculation that this just might be the last season of Scrubs since their renewal was announced late and the show will again be returning mid-season—both indicators that NBC isn’t that invested in the show. Braff certainly has talents elsewhere with writing and directing, so it’s not surprising that he would want to pursue that more and continue to grow his career in that direction. Still… his crazy JD character will be sorely missed.
Read More | TV Squad
Gallery: Zach Braff Leaving Scrubs?
Study Finds Fewer Gay Characters on TV
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Comedy, Drama, ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, Desperate Housewives, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, The CW, The Office,
OK, so here’s a curious study—finding that the number of homosexual characters on television has decreased for the 2006-2007 season. Only nine homosexual characters will be on network-TV series, down from 10 last year. This information was released from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Interesting, I suppose, since the study looked at 679 series lead or supporting characters in the new season, and only about 1.3 percent are gay, lesbian or bisexual. GLAAD looked at the 95 new prime-time comedies and dramas from six major networks. While shows like Ellen and Will & Grace paved the way for more diverse roles, the numbers are still relatively low when looking at the total number of characters that the study analyzed. The characters were identified on the following shows: Help Me Help You (ABC), The Class (CBS), Brothers & Sisters (ABC), Fashion House” (MyNetworkTV), and Hidden Palms on the CW network. Returning shows include Desperate Housewives (ABC), The Office (NBC), and ER (NBC). Recurring gay, lesbian or bisexual characters are also in the series Ugly Betty, Big Day, The Simpsons, The War at Home and Grey’s Anatomy. GLAAD president Neil Giuliano commented on the study, saying, “It’s clear that the broadcast networks have a long way to go before they accurately reflect the diversity of their audience and our society.”
Read More | CBS News
Gallery: Study Finds Fewer Gay Characters on TV
Jane Krakowski Joining 30 Rock on NBC
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Comedy, Prime Time, NBC, News,
Just on the heels of the announcement that Rachel Dratch’s role on 30 Rock would be facing some changes, the latest word is that Jane Krakowski will be taking over the part originally filled by Dratch. Krakowski will be playing the star of “The Girlie Show”—the fictional show around which 30 Rock centers. If you’ve been following the fall premieres, you may recall that this is the role that Dratch was set to star in. The recent news from Lorne Michaels, executive producer of the series, was that Dratch would now be taking on a variety of characters on the show. Says Michaels of Krakowski joining the series, “Jane is enormously talented and everyone is thrilled that she is joining the cast. I think it’s going to be a perfect fit.” The show also stars Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan. You may remember Krakowski from Ally McBeal; she is also a seasoned stage actress—but I have fond memories of her as cousin Vicki in the movie Vacation.
30 Rockwill debut on October 11.
Read More | AOL Entertainment
Gallery: Jane Krakowski Joining 30 Rock on NBC
Last Comic Standing is Josh Blue
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Comedy, Prime Time, NBC, Talent,
Well, I couldn’t endure the entire season of Last Comic Standing—I watched the auditions and couldn’t get much further than that. With Anthony Clark taking over the hosting duties from Jay Mohr, I just lost interest. But I was glad to hear that Josh Blue came out as the victor of the competition. With his original take on his own disability, cerebral palsy, he dares to make fun of himself before others can. Blue went into the finals with Ty Barnett, who was also well-received for his jokes and delivery. According to Zap2it, Blue was a sentimental favorite who never had to go in the “head-to-head competitions.” When the viewers could make their choice for their favorite, Blue was able to easily make it through to the finals. The finale of Last Comic Standing spanned 90 minutes and brought back the winners of the past three seasons, as well as an appearance by Jay Mohr, who delivered a short set. Good to see Jay Mohr back—I had written Anthony Clark off as a credible host solely by reason of too much makeup. Scary.
Josh Blue walked away with a talent deal with NBC and a stand up special on Bravo.
Read More | Zap2it
Gallery: Last Comic Standing is Josh Blue
Ellen DeGeneres’ Show Renewed
Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Comedy, Daytime, Talk Shows, NBC, Renewals,
The Ellen DeGeneres Show has been picked up for three more seasons by NBC stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and seven other big cities. This takes the show through the 2009-2010 season in these markets. Great news for the dance-aholic whose show earned three Daytime Emmy awards for outstanding talk show, and who herself won two for outstanding talk show host. Jim Paratore, an executive with Warner Bros., said DeGeneres “connects with the upscale, suburban soccer-moms that advertisers pay a premium to reach.” Um,... ok. I think DeGeneres is herself—easy-going and fun-spirited—and that makes her show so relatable to so many people. If that includes upscale suburban soccer-moms, then so be it. I am neither upscale, nor a soccer mom, but I try to catch Ellen’s show whenever I can. I have been a longtime fan of her stand-up, loved her sitcom, and can’t enough of her in Finding Nemo—her transition to daytime talk show host was a natural progression. Dance on, Ellen!
Read More | E! Online
Gallery: Ellen DeGeneres’ Show Renewed
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