DVR Overflow

NEWS DUMP 3/7/2012

Sorry for our news drought of recent, folks. Just assume nothing happened in the world over the past few days and we can start anew.

Anyway, news dump.

• Yesterday’s news: Terra Nova, the show that somehow managed to make dinosaurs boring, has been canceled by Fox after a long period of indecisiveness on its future. It still retains the possibility of another network picking it up, but until then we won’t need to fret about figuring out what the hell a nykoraptor is.
• Getting this out of the way: If you don’t like the way The Sopranos ended, then you’re probably just a moron (I’m looking at you, Bill Simmons). Also, David Chase is now mocking you and saying his television masterpiece should have ended like Seinfeld.
• Sigourney Weaver has signed on for a new show on USA where she will be playing a near carbon copy of Hillary Clinton.
• Our distaste for Showtime’s House of Lies here at DVR Overflow is well documented, and from the brief glimpses I’ve had of the show since its premiere it still seems to be pretty shitty television that largely wastes the talent of Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell. But one of my favorite pop culture critics, Indiewire’s Alison Willmore, makes a compelling case that it paints a more nuanced portrait of race than almost any other show in 2012.
• And finally, Grantland has put together a bracket to determine the best character from The Wire. Consensus seems to be that this is the most Grantlandy Grantlandish thing ever, and it truly is the kind of thing that people like Kevin and me would have thought up as a joke at one in the morning at our old college newspaper. But if this thing has to exist, one must say that the seeding is TERRIBLE.

NEEEEEEEEEEWS DUMP — ASEMMMMBLLLEEEEEEEE

• The newest season of Dancing with the Stars has a pretty boring lineup, minus Jaleel White, aka Urkel. I can only imagine years of doing the robot on Family Matters will help his case.
• HBO’s upcoming Vice-Presidential comedy Veep has a trailer, and it looks pretty darn good. Will the Seinfeld curse finally be lifted? Furthermore, will anyone ever stop calling it the Seinfeld curse as long as Michael Richards and Jason Alexander exist?
• And in a combined note about two shows that have overstayed their welcome, Alan Ball is stepping down as writer of True Blood, and James Spader will be leaving The Office. With Spader, Mindy Kaling, and Rainn Wilson headed out the door, you really have to wonder whether this will be the last season for NBC’s crown jewel.

(Also, let’s not ignore this amazing photo of Jason Sudeikis and Jon Hamm after the Kansas-Missouri basketball game. Can we be friends, please?)

News Dump 2/15/2012

Happy post-Valentine’s Day Wednesday everyone. Now that all of you have got that stupid “love” out of your system, it’s time to return to the doom and gloom of our non-chocolate covered reality. Yay!

• Speaking of doom and gloom: Cannibalism! NBC has officially picked up the Hannibal Lecter show from Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller, apparently without even needing a pilot. But really, who needs pilots when you have the sure-fire ratings smash of gourmet human flesh?
• Like the Travel Channel? If yes, the bad news is you probably cried yourself to sleep after a lonely Valentine’s Day last night. The good news is you will soon have a lot of new travel-themed reality show rip-offs to watch. Actually, that’s probably worse news, there is no good news. Your life sucks. Sorry.
• William Shatner has a new one-man show coming out on Broadway, which of course means we’re all just going to talk about his TV career.
• And finally, Gavin Polone has a terrific piece up on Vulture explaining how talented actors usually end up in pilots that don’t fit their skills. Give it a read and keep it in mind when the next round of terrible shows come around in the fall.

NEWS DUMP 2/13/2012

Hullo again folks. Here’s all the news that’s fit to print (so if anyone has a spare printing press, run this blog through there please).

• Saturday Night Live was hilarious this week. Not only was Zooey Deschanel a capable host, but the supporting sketches were out of this world. Also, two Nicolas Cages on Weekend Update? Heaven.
• Are 30 Rock’s ratings in the toilet because Liz Lemon has become an immature little girl? NPR thinks so.
• Roseanne Redux? John Goodman has signed on to costar on Roseanne Barr’s upcoming NBC show Downwardly Mobile.  Consider this show officially worth checking out.
• Speaking of Roseanne, the show didn’t fare so well with its one entry into Splitsider’s Best Sitcom Episode Ever tournament, losing in the first round to Mary Tyler Moore. There’s an extreme bias toward recent shows (Community could end up with two episodes in the final four) but it’s still a fun diversion to check out.

It was my Jack Bauer birthday yesterday and I am hungover! These story recaps are going to be short and sweet.

• Jean-Ralphio is Spiderman. (CollegeHumor)
• Chuck Woolery is a right-wing nutjob. (HuffPo)
• Bill Engvall is a detective? (Deadline)
• John Stamos is back on TV (Ditto)
• NBC is rebooting The Munsters (but not until June) (Double Ditto)

News Dump 2/8/2012

Hello statistically trackable readership! It’s a pleasure to see you and your collective demographics this morning. How is your respective age bracket doing?

Anyway, news dump.

• HBO has an unofficial premiere date of June 24th set for its new Aaron Sorkin drama The Newsroom, which will apparently be set at the fictional Atlantis Cable News network. I assume this means that there will be recurring story lines featuring Aquaman.
• NCIS celebrated its 200th episode last night, and I think we can all agree on one thing: the writers of NCIS have proven very adept at counting to 200.
• FUSE still exists.
• Long time fans of Mandy Moore (all six of you) can rejoice, for the singer/actress best known for being in that one movie where she dies from cancer is potentially coming to ABC this fall.
• And finally, the consensus best Super Bowl ad this year (and potentially the best Super Bowl ad of all time) was Chrysler’s Halftime in America spot, featuring Clint Eastwood as the country’s reassuring grandfather. But as with all things awesome, we have to ruin it by going through the response-backlash-antibacklash cycle. Among the controversies the ad has generated: It is liberal propaganda, it should be conservative propaganda, it wasn’t actually filmed in Detroit, Chrysler and the NFL can’t agree on who owns the copyright and it edited out pro-union protest signs used in one of its images. But you should ignore all of that shit and just accept this as a terrific two minutes of filmmaking.

News Dump 2/2/2012

Guten Tag, alle. The groundhog saw its shadow today, so that means six more weeks of winter. Or maybe six more weeks of Bill Murray. I’m hoping six more weeks of Bill Murray.

Anyway, news dump.

• Kevin Bacon, the man you are all connected to by six degrees, has signed on to a FOX pilot about a serial killer from Scream writer Kevin Williamson. Sadly, he will not be playing the serial killer because that would be too awesome.
• MOAR PILOTZ! Comedian and overall talented guy Dana Gould has teamed up with musician and overall talented guy Dave Grohl on a show for FX. It will of course feature a great deal of rock and roll, and possibly a Foo Fighters song or two. Maybe. I’m just guessing here.
• The NY Times explores the rise of Brooklyn in the world of television. I assume this is the next step in the Times’ discovery of the Outer Boroughs. 
• And finally, a shout-out to Kevin’s and my old stomping grounds of Madison, Wisconsin: Turns out Hulu’s first original scripted series, Battleground, is set in the wonderful capital of the Nation’s Dairyland. Maybe Bucky will make a cameo?

News Dump 1/31/2012

I usually try to write something clever here, but my computer just crashed and I now have to do this post all over again. Todd is angry and that means short, curt sentences.

• Louis CK has a pilot at CBS. That was unexpected.
• Mindy Kaling has a pilot at FOX. That is good.
• Shirley MacLaine is joining the third season of Downton Abbey. That is jolly good.
• Fear Factor apparently has limits.

I’m going to go smash something now.