Skip to main content

Channel Surfing: "90210," Ashley Jensen, Trailer for "Merlin" Unveiled, NBC Shakeup, and More

Good morning and welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Like many of you out there, I'm bummed that my three-day weekend sailed by far too quickly... but am also thrilled that the fall TV season is finally upon us.

Digital Spy has a roughly 90-second trailer up for Merlin, which airs on BBC One and on NBC this winter and stars Colin Morgan, Anthony Stewart Head, Michelle Ryan, Richard Wilson, Katie McGrath, Bradley James, Angel Coulby, and Santiago Cabrera. (Digital Spy)

90210 mania is upon us with mere hours to go before the launch of 90210 2.0, as it were. EW.com has some behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty from their recent cover shoot. (Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch)

Shannen Doherty, meanwhile, sat down with the Los Angeles Times for a brief interview, in which she said that the sudden goodwill being directed towards her from the public "definitely feels good" and "also feels scary." (Los Angeles Times)

While most Americans know her best from her turn as Christina on Ugly Betty, Ashley Jensen won me over much earlier with her winning performance as Maggie Jacobs on HBO/BBC's Extras. She's up for an Emmy in the supporting actress (mini-series or movie) category and talks about the nomination, Extras, and what happens to Christina on Ugly Betty. (USA Today)

Nikki Finke claims that NBC wants to fire second-in-command Teri Weinberg and "hopes that Ben Silverman quits very soon." She says that Marc Graboff and Katherine Pope will take up the reins at the network. Silverman's contract is up in December, but he's said to be looking to secure a way out before then. (Deadline Hollywood Daily)

PBS has launched 40 half-hour episodes of kids program Sid the Science Kid from Henson's Creature Shop, which will produce the series via its new Digital Puppetry Studio, which uses a puppet motion-capture technology and applies it to CGI-derived characters and environments. (Hollywood Reporter)

MTV is launching a global HD service on September 15th. (Variety)

Stay tuned.
Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
Hi Jace

if you've not seen this already, I thought you and your readers might be interested in this news about series such as Chuck premiering on Hulu a week before broadcast tv:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/02/hulu-launches-fall-lineup-premieres-before-tv-broadcast/
9/02/2008
Anonymous said…
It would be nice if NBC got a better president. Something about Ben Silverman rubs me the wrong way.

Merlin looks great, I'm sure I'm going to like it.
9/02/2008
Danielle C.F. Maris said…
Merlin looks like it could be very cool. Anthony Head and Michelle Ryan? Fantastic!
9/02/2008
Anonymous said…
I would love to see Ashley Jensen get an Emmy. Her talent is mostly wasted on Ugly Betty but she was incredible and incredibly funny on Extras and completely held her own against funny man Ricky Gervais.
9/02/2008
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Have a Burning Question for Team Darlton, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, or Michael Emerson?

Lost fans: you don't have to make your way to the island via Ajira Airways in order to ask a question of the creative team or the series' stars. Televisionary is taking questions from fans to put to Lost 's executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Matthew Fox ("Jack Shephard"), Evangeline Lilly ("Kate Austen"), and Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus") for a series of on-camera interviews taking place this weekend. If you have a specific question for any of the above producers or actors from Lost , please leave it in the comments section below . I'll be accepting questions until midnight PT tonight and, while I can't promise I'll be able to ask any specific inquiry due to the brevity of these on-camera interviews, I am looking for some insightful and thought-provoking questions to add to the mix. So who knows: your burning question might get asked after all.
253 comments
Continue reading full story...

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season ...
135 comments
Continue reading full story...

In Defense of Downton Abbey (Or, Don't Believe Everything You Read)

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. Which means, if I can get on my soapbox for a minute, that in order to judge something, one ought to experience it first hand. One can't know how the pudding has turned out until one actually tastes it. I was asked last week--while I was on vacation with my wife--for an interview by a journalist from The Daily Mail, who got in touch to talk to me about PBS' upcoming launch of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey , which stars Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Dan Stevens, Elizabeth McGovern, and a host of others. (It launches on Sunday evening as part of PBS' Masterpiece Classic ; my advance review of the first season can be read here , while my interview with Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and stars Dan Stevens and Hugh Bonneville can be read here .) Normally, I would have refused, just based on the fact that I was traveling and wasn't working, but I love Downton Abbey and am so enchanted with the proj...
55 comments
Continue reading full story...