Cinerant

Get "Arrested" Online

From the AP:

Microsoft to show 'Arrested Development' for free
Updated 7/26/2006 6:27 PM ET

SEATTLE (AP) — Microsoft Corp. will run free episodes of the quirky TV comedy Arrested Development through its MSN Video service later this year, making the show available online for the first time.
MSN, the software maker's Internet unit, said Wednesday it will run display and video ads instead of charging viewers to watch the critically lauded show that was a hit with a relatively small but fiercely loyal audience.
"On TV, Arrested Development created an incredibly passionate and dedicated fan base, and we're thrilled to bring this series to the global MSN audience," Rob Bennett, MSN's general manager of entertainment and video services, said in a statement announcing the deal.
MSN will have exclusive portal rights to syndicate the show's 53 episodes for three years.
Making recent TV shows available online for free is rare.
Shows have generally gone on sale through Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes and other services for $1.99 an episode, though those are for full downloads. MSN will stream Arrested Development, meaning users will have to stay online while watching and possibly encounter pauses resulting from network congestion.
ABC experimented recently with making Lost and other programs free through its website. Time Warner Inc.'s AOL has a deal with sister company Warner Bros. to show older programs such as Welcome Back Kotter and Growing Pains.
Arrested Development was canceled this year after three seasons.
Beside the MSN showing, HDNet will begin airing Arrested Development episodes in September on its high-definition network, which is offered on some cable and satellite systems. It will have exclusive HD television access to the series for three years.
Meanwhile, G4, a network that targets the coveted 18- to 34-year-old male demographic, has acquired basic cable rights for the series for three years and will begin airing it in October.

posted by cinegod @ 10:46 PM 0 comments

What's in a Name?

I can't tell you how many times I've heard this sermon preached at church. I think I got tired of this topic by the time I'd heard the umpteenth variation when I was in the third grade, but I do see that there's a lot to the signficance of a name.

One of the blogs I read daily is JaneEspenson.com. Jane's a super-talented writer who wrote for Buffy and has committed her blog to talking about the craft of writing a television spec. Within the last couple of days, she's gotten into some good discussions about the nature of a title and what it means for the show.

One of the things she says that is that part of the reason that The West Wing always seemed to be "better than TV" is because it never used simple, slang titles. Episodes called "Shibboleth", "What Kind of Day Has It Been", "Holy Night", "Gaza", and "Noel" sound like they're about something substantive and important. And while that would be my largest complaint about the show--way too self-important, it is an interesting note that something as simple as a title says volumes about the desired effect of what image you hope to present. There's probably a reason that all of Grey's Anatomy's episodes are named after pop songs, just like most Desperate Housewives episodes are named after Sondheim tunes. It says volumes about what the show really is at the core.

posted by cinegod @ 8:35 PM 0 comments

NBC's Fall

Here’s the announcement of NBC’s fall premiere dates.

9/18: Deal or No Deal (2 hours) at 8p, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip at 10p
9/19: Law & Order: Criminal Intent at 9p, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit at 10p
9/20: The Biggest Loser (2 hours) at 8p, Kidnapped at 10p
9/21: My Name Is Earl at 8p, The Office at 830p, Deal or No Deal at 9p, ER at 10p
9/22: Law & Order at 10p
9/25: Heroes at 9p
10/3: Friday Night Lights at 8p
10/4: Twenty Good Years at 8p and 830p
10/11: 30 Rock at 830p
10/20: Crossing Jordan at 8p, Las Vegas at 9p

The more I look at this lineup, the less and less excited I am about it. Friday Night Lights could be interesting. I’ve read the Pilot script for Studio 60 and the fact that I can’t even get the show’s name right probably means it’s not going to replace What About Brian? on my TIVO season pass. (Speaking of which, with this new job thing, I’m beginning to worry about how much time I’m going to have to devote to the stuff on my season pass. Furthermore, the news that Andre Braugher is going to join ER for a six episode stint makes six more episodes of a show that I’ll have to add. ARGH!)

posted by cinegod @ 3:50 PM 0 comments

The Right People are Watching

Per Zap 2 It:

NBC is hoping several hundred thousand YouTube fans can't be wrong, rescuing the discarded pilot "Nobody's Watching" from oblivion with an eye toward eventually putting it on the air.The show, originally developed for The WB by "Scrubs" creator Bill Lawrence, died a somewhat surprising death at the 2005 upfronts after having a lot positive buzz during its development. That would have been the end of things in most cases.

However, the pilot was posted on viral-video site YouTube in June, and since then the first part of the pilot (it's posted in three roughly nine-minute segments) has been streamed nearly 400,000 times, with mostly positive feedback from viewers. Given the response -- and the fact that NBC's sister studio, NBC Universal TV, produced it -- the network has put it back into development.

"I love the spirit of the experimentation," NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly says. "And I think if we can actually have something find an audience on the web, gravitate over to the network, continue with a web presence and have them feed each other, that could end up being a really cool thing.

"The resurrection of "Nobody's Watching" will continue online before it ever hits the air (if, in fact, it does). Lawrence and his co-writers, Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan, will produce a set of webisodes featuring the show's two leads, Taran Killam and Paul Campbell, that Reilly hopes will be online within the next month.

At the same time, Lawrence and Co. will begin working on scripts for the TV series. As with other pilots, there's no guarantee it will make it to NBC's airwaves.

posted by cinegod @ 3:44 PM 1 comments

TV Bits

Here's some odd-bits of exciting news, courtsey of TV Guide.

"Tina Majorino is officially a series regular as Veronica Mars' Mac, effective this coming season. For more Mars scoop, check out Ausiello's TCA Press Tour diary.... Speaking of Mike, as scooped by the Ausiello Report last week, Dougray Scott (of NBC's all-too-short-lived Heist, as well as Mission: Impossible II) is in talks to play Susan's new love interest/pratfall witness on Desperate Housewives.... Jennifer Love Hewitt revealed at TCA that in addition to Camryn Manheim, Jay Mohr is joining Ghost Whisperer as a professor with an expertise in demonology.... Paula Malcomson (aka Deadwood's Trixie) joins ER this fall as a widow and love interest for John Stamos' character.... Lindsay Sloane (Grosse Pointe) has been cast as Ted Danson's daughter in ABC's Help Me Help You."

Also, while promoting The Break Up in Britain, apparently Jennifer Aniston has made more than one comment about missing Rachel Greene, and that she'd really like to have a Friends reunion. Specifically, she'd like to see them do a Thanksgiving episode, because everybody knows that the Thanksgiving episodes of Friends were always the best. I find it hard to believe that this could happen in time for this Thanksgiving, but maybe next year. Let's hope...

posted by cinegod @ 11:07 AM 0 comments

CW Premiere Dates

Sept. 20, 8 pm/ET: America's Next Top Model
Sept. 22, 8 pm: WWE Friday Night SmackDown!
Sept. 25, 8 pm: 7th Heaven, 9 pm: Runaway
Sept. 26, 8 pm: Gilmore Girls
Sept. 27, 9 pm: One Tree Hill
Sept. 28, 8 pm: Smallville, 9 pm: Supernatural
Oct. 1, 7 pm: Everybody Hates Chris (look for Whoopi Goldberg to guest on two episodes as a neighbor whose granddaughter Chris crushes on), 7:30: All of Us, 8 pm: Girlfriends, 8:30 The Game
Oct. 3, 9 pm: Veronica Mars

posted by cinegod @ 12:11 PM 0 comments

Casting News

Per today's Variety:
"Regina King (Ray) is joining the cast of Fox's 24, while D.B. Woodside is being bumped up to series regular, reports Variety.In a Kennedyesque twist, Woodside -- who plays Wayne Palmer, brother of assassinated President David Palmer -- will begin season six as the newly elected president of the United States.King, meanwhile, joins as heretofore unseen Palmer sister Angela, a powerful lawyer with an advocacy group.24 begins its sixth season in January."

Also,

"New Line has found its Hairspray villain, setting Michelle Pfeiffer to play Velma von Tussel, the former Miss Baltimore Crabs beauty queen-turned-bitter Baltimore TV station owner.Variety says Pfeiffer joins John Travolta, Queen Latifah, Amanda Bynes, Zac Efron and newcomer Nikki Blonsky, who'll play lead Tracy Turnblad. Adam Shankman is directing and Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are producing. Leslie Dixon wrote the script."

Good to know that Principal Wood--I mean, Wayne Palmer will be back next season, though the idea that America is ready to elect two African-American Presidents is a little hard for me to completely buy. Still, Regina King's an incredibly talented actress, and I'm excited to see her join 24.

Pfeiffer joining the cast of Hairspray is the best news however. From the first moment I saw the musical, I thought she would make a perfect Velma von Tussel. She can sing and play catty like nobody else. Sure, this role isn't going to be cinematic viagra like her last singing turn in The Fabulous Baker Boys, but this is sure to get attention. It finally gets me excited about it, that's for sure--finally. Unfortunately, the fact that Adam Shankman is directing it REALLY worries me, and the fact that none of the movie is going to be shot in Baltimore is troubling too. (How do you do a movie that's a love story to a city and it not be shot in that city? I mean, can you imagine Manhattan being shot on a sound stage in LA? NO! It had to be shot in New York, but, it's not my money...)

posted by cinegod @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

Trailer of the Day

Here's the trailer for the new film from Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins). It stars Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. Though I'm no fan of the handlebar mustache Bale has going on in part of this, I was thrilled enough by Memento and Batman Begins to get excited about this one coming out in the fall. The trailer does a nice job of selling it on a couple of different levels--period piece/thriller. Who knows what it will actually be though?

posted by cinegod @ 8:16 AM 1 comments

Pilot Watch

Michael Ausiello at TV Guide is a funny guy with really great taste. He posted this today regarding shows for the fall:

"For the first time in recent memory, the good fall shows easily outnumber the bad ones — at least based on the pilots I saw. As Desperate Housewives taught us, the second and third episodes tell us much more about a show's creative bones than a season premiere. With that said, here are the fall offerings that have the most FauxVo potential.
* Vanished (Fox) and Kidnapped (NBC): Among the things these two thrillers share in common: They both had me hooked before the first act break. Please don't make me choose a favorite.
* Friday Night Lights (NBC): Three words: Sign. Me. Up.
* Smith (CBS): Ocean's Eleven for the small screen, in which every member of the ensemble could easily headline their own show — and many of them have. This season's best-produced pilot is also the darkest.
* Jericho (CBS): Surprisingly engrossing, considering it's Everwood: The Day After. Let's hope this whole North Korea crisis simmers down by fall.
* 30 Rock (NBC): If you like Tina Fey's shtick, you're going to love 30 Rock. And I defy you not to chortle at every syllable that comes out of Alec Baldwin's mouth. The dude is a comic genius.
* The Nine (ABC): I'm not crazy about the whole bank-robbery conceit, but the cast sells it like a stack of three-dollar bills.
* Six Degrees (ABC): It's Crash minus all the proselytizing. I think my pal J.J.'s got another winner.
* Betty the Ugly (ABC): My pick for most satisfying pilot. Allow me to be the first to say, "God bless America Ferrera!"
* Daylight (ABC/midseason): If you can get past the preposterous 24 meets Groundhog Day premise — and I did — you're going to have a blast.
* Heroes (NBC): Although the pilot didn't entirely live up to my lofty expectations (more humor, please!), I'm still convinced that this small-screen X-Men has the potential to be the next Lost."

posted by cinegod @ 2:30 PM 0 comments

Too Many Crazy Nights

I'm not a M. Night Shamamamaml-ego-yan fan. He's got just too much arrogance for the minute amount of talent he's demonstrated as a director and as a writer, it's clear that he knows about set ups and payoffs, but the execution of his ideas lack in relation to the loftiness of them. Sure, there are some people who will get excited about an upcoming film being released, but give me a Soderbergh film any day. (And there are possibly two coming this fall--The Good German and Che!)

Anyway, much of the buzz around The Lady in the Water has to do with the falling out between Night and Disney, the studio that was responsible for Signs, The Sixth Sense, and Unbreakable. Apparently, the head of the film division didn't really believe in the script and gave him notes. Night felt hurt and ran wimpering to Warner Brothers.

It's all been documented in a new book called The Man Who Heard Voices by Sports Illustrated writer Michael Bamberger. Bamberger spent some time following around Night and the book is flooding the Hollywood gossip pages. What's the scoop? Does Night come off as an insecure genius or just an insecure loon?

Well, according to Janet Maslin (you gotta love the brilliance of this woman), plan on him coming out more like a loon. When the book comes out next week, we'll have the opportunity to see.

posted by cinegod @ 2:00 PM 1 comments

Whoppers

Well, as celebrity sightings go, today, I had a big one. While delivering materials to Warner Brothers, I passed Tyler Durden chatting on his cell phone.

And I didn't even feel the need to try and get his attention. I was very proud of myself.

If it had been Tyler's alter-ego however, all bets would be off.

posted by cinegod @ 2:38 PM 1 comments

Reactions

I don’t get the Emmy nominations.

Sure, there were some things the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences got right. (Jean Smart, Denis Leary, Chandra Wilson, Will Arnett), but there are so many head-scratching omissions that I can’t make any sense of it.

Here’s what I’ve surmised. The new system worked, kind of. Of last year’s big six winners—Lost, Everybody Loves Raymond, Felicity Huffman, Patricia Arquette, James Spader, and Tony Shaloub—one (Shaloub) got a nomination this year. So clearly, there won’t be many repeat winners in the big prizes. The supporting nominations are familiar nominees—Shatner, Danner, Alda, Mullaly, Hayes—with only a few (Smart!, Itzin, Wilson, Pressly, Perkins, Arnett, Cryer, and among them) new faces. Others like Bergen and Woodard are new to their nominations, but very familiar faces to the Academy.

So if the goal was to get new nominees, the system worked. But if the idea was to give smaller shows a chance, it didn’t. Of all the major nominees, the only ones that are not on a major network or HBO or Showtime are Kyra Sedgwick’s nod for TNT’s The Closer and Denis Leary’s nod for Rescue Me on FX.

And still no Lauren Graham or Kristen Bell.

Yet somehow, Stockard Channing got nominated for a show that nobody watched. Man, this Academy loves this woman.

But the most confusing part of the whole nominations are the omissions and disconnections between the series and acting nominees. How in the world did The Sopranos get nominated, but neither Edie Falco or James Gandolfini get nominated? I’d already seen much speculation that she had the Best Actress award sewn up and that the Best Actor award would be a face-off between Gandolfini and Hugh Laurie. I guess that means that Laurie has it…WAIT! He wasn’t nominated either. I can’t even begin to figure that one out.

Overall, the nominations are what you would expect from the Emmys—somewhat confusing, somewhat expected, and not accurately representative of the best of what’s on television. Otherwise, there would nominations for Battlestar Galactica and The Shield. Alas…

posted by cinegod @ 7:46 PM 0 comments

Emmy nods

Here are the nominations. I'll have my reactions later today, but egads!

58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards Nominations
Outstanding Drama Series
Grey's Anatomy
House
The Sopranos
24
The West Wing

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama
Chrisotpher Meloni, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Denis Leary, Rescue Me
Peter Krause, Six Feet Under
Kiefer Sutherland, 24
Martin Sheen, The West Wing

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer
Geena Davis, Commander In Chief
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Frances Conroy, Six Feet Under
Allison Janney, The West Wing

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
William Shatner, Boston Legal
Oliver Platt, Huff
Michael Imperioli, The Sopranos
Gregory Itzin, 24
Alan Alda, The West Wing

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Candice Bergen, Boston Legal
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy
Blythe Danner, Huff
Jean Smart, 24

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series
Michael J. Fox, Boston Legal
Christian Clemenson, Boston Legal
James Woods, ER
Kyle Chandler, Grey's Anatomy
Henry Ian Cusick, Lost

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
Kate Burton, Grey's Anatomy
Christina Ricci, Grey's Anatomy
Swoosie Kurtz, Huff
Patricia Clarkson, Six Feet Under
Joanna Cassidy, Six Feet Under

Outstanding Comedy Series
Arrested Development
Curb Your Enthusiasm
The Office
Scrubs
Two and a Half Men

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm
Kevin James, The King of Queens
Tony Shalhoub, Monk
Steve Carell, The Office
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Lisa Kudrow, The Comeback
Jane Kaczmarek, Malcolm in the Middle
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Stockard Channing, Out of Practice
Debra Messing, Will & Grace

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Will Arnett, Arrested Development
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Bryan Cranston, Malcolm in the Middle
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Sean Hayes, Will & Grace

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Cheryl Hines, Curb Your Enthusiasm
Alfre Woodard, Desperate Housewives
Jaime Pressly, My Name Is Earl
Elizabeth Perkins, Weeds
Megan Mullally, Will & Grace

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
Patrick Stewart, Extras
Ben Stiller, Extras
Martin Sheen, Two and a Half Men
Alec Baldwin, Will & Grace
Leslie Jordan, Will & Grace

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
Shirley Knight, Desperate Housewives
Kate Winslet, Extras
Cloris Leachman, Malcolm in the Middle
Laurie Metcalf, Monk
Blythe Danner, Will & Grace

Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series
Chuck Tatham, Jim Vallely, Richard Day, & Mitchell Hurwitz “Development Arrested” Arrested Development
Doug Ellin, “Exodus” Entourage
Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant, “Kate Winslet” Extras
Greg Garcia, Pilot, My Name is Earl
Michael Schur, “Christmas Party” The Office

Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series
Shonda Rimes, “It’s the End of the World, As We Know It (Part 1 & 2), Grey’s Anatomy
Krista Vernoff, “Into You Like a Train”, Grey’s Anatomy
Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof “The 23rd Psalm” Lost
Alan Ball, “Everyone’s Waiting” Six Feet Under
Terence Winter, “Members Only”, The Sopranos

posted by cinegod @ 8:32 AM 0 comments

My Emmy nominees

By the time most people read these, the Emmy nominees will already be announced, but if I were nominating, here's what I'd put in the slots:

BEST DRAMA
24
Battlestar Galactica
Everwood
Lost
The Shield


BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Michael Chiklis The Shield
Matthew Fox Lost
Hugh Laurie House
Denis Leary Rescue Me
Kiefer Sutherland 24

BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Kristen Bell Veronica Mars
Jennifer Garner Alias
Mary McDonnell Battlestar Galactica
Kyra Sedgwick The Closer
Susannah Thompson The Book of Daniel

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Jason Dohring Veronica Mars
Kenneth Johnson The Shield
Daniel Dae Kim Lost
T.R. Knight Grey’s Anatomy
Forest Whitaker The Shield

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Candice Bergen Boston Legal
Sarah Drew Everwood
CCH Pounder The Shield
Jean Smart 24
Kate Walsh Grey's Anatomy
Chandra Wilson Grey’s Anatomy

BEST COMEDY
Arrested Development
Everybody Hates Chris
The Loop
The Office
Scrubs

BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Jason Bateman Arrested Development
Zach Braff Scrubs
Steve Carell The Office
Jason Lee My Name is Earl
Tyler James Williams Everybody Hates Chris


BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Tichina Arnold Everybody Hates Chris
Marcia Cross Desperate Housewives
Lauren Graham Gilmore Girls
Jane Kazmarek Malcolm in the Middle
Eva Longoria Desperate Housewives

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Kelly Bishop Gilmore Girls
Jenna Fischer The Office
Judy Reyes Scrubs
Mimi Rogers The Loop
Jessica Walter The Office

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Will Arnett Arrested Development
Donald Faison Scrubs
Neil Patrick Harris How I Met Your Mother
Philip Baker Hall The Loop
John C. McGinley Scrubs

posted by cinegod @ 10:35 PM 0 comments

New Development

July 3, 2006
Thanks to YouTube Fans, 'Nobody's Watching' May Return From the Dead
By BILL CARTER
For television writers and producers it has always been about getting your show on the air.
These days? Not so much.
At the moment the most talked-about situation comedy in the United States isn't on television at all. It's on your computer, though, and you can find it on www.youtube.com, where thousands of videos of all levels of quality are posted every day.
A comedy called — with intended irony, but not in the way that it has worked out — "Nobody's Watching" has been available on YouTube for about two weeks. As of yesterday it had been downloaded more than 300,000 times by a growing legion of fans.
Most remarkable of all, the talk that the show has generated has already caught the ears of executives at several networks, some of whom are wondering if maybe this is a virus they might enjoy getting infected with.
"Nobody's Watching" seems to be another example of a story that the Internet world loves: the power of the amateur over the professionals. It is also the story of "viral video," which is what YouTube is all about. People post a snippet of self-made video, and word spreads about how funny, shocking, stupid or embarrassing it is.
But the big story behind "Nobody's Watching" is that a sitcom left for dead 18 months ago may actually spring back to life — on actual television — because its creators were too passionate about it to let it die, and because it really might be funnier than most everything else that is passing for comedy on television these days.
The man at the center of the story is Bill Lawrence, creator of "Spin City" and "Scrubs." Mr. Lawrence knows how insane the television business can be. For example, for a few years after "Scrubs" made its debut on NBC in 2001, all Mr. Lawrence heard from network executives was that the show would never be a hit because it was a single-camera filmed comedy. Only multi-camera taped comedies worked, he was told.
In the last two years Mr. Lawrence said, he has gotten into arguments with network program chiefs who have told him, "The multi-camera comedy genre is dead."
Both stances struck Mr. Lawrence as ridiculous. "The challenge," he said in a telephone interview, "was to reinvent the genre."
That was the goal of "Nobody's Watching," which Mr. Lawrence conceived with two writing partners, Garrett Donovan and Neil Goldman, who had both worked on the Fox animated comedy "Family Guy."
Their thought was that most traditional sitcoms had begun failing not because of form but because of quality: they were all bad. And so they created a couple of characters, Derek and Will, from Ohio, who believed the same thing, and they decided to let them try to make a show of their own.
The gimmick is that the two characters come to California to make their own sitcom, but at the same time they are doing it in the form of a fake reality show conceived by some fictional network executives. The studio behind the (real) project was NBC Universal Television, so NBC had first crack at the show. But Mr. Lawrence said that it was clear from the start that NBC's programming boss, Kevin Reilly, though he liked the freshness of the idea, did not think it was appropriate for NBC.
So it wound up on the development slate of the WB network. That seemed a hospitable place because WB was youth oriented, and "Nobody's Watching" was a show definitely aimed at young viewers. Mr. Lawrence said all the younger executives at that network loved the show.
The show was cast with an eye toward keeping it fresh and innovative. The two leads, Taran Killam and Paul Campbell, had extensive improvisational backgrounds. Mr. Lawrence said he insisted they become inseparable for weeks leading up to shooting the pilot, and the actors indeed became fast friends.
The other important characters included a network boss named Jeff Tucker. (Mr. Lawrence credited Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of the NBC Universal Television Group, with being such a sport that he told them he didn't mind if they used his actual name.)
The pilot, which appears intact on YouTube, pulls no punches in disparaging sitcoms the creators clearly believe have damaged the genre. By name, "According to Jim," "Coach" and "Yes, Dear," among others, are mocked by the characters.
Mr. Lawrence acknowledged that that had caused a bit of a rift between him and Greg Garcia, creator of "Yes, Dear," though he said he loved and respected Mr. Garcia's newer comedy, "My Name Is Earl," which is shown on NBC.
All went well with "Nobody's Watching" until the testing phase. Then, Mr. Lawrence said, he and his partners journeyed to a "sweaty test-screening room" in the San Fernando Valley where issues were raised by the screeners about whether the premise was confusing. That seemed to Mr. Lawrence to be the unspoken concern of WB executives, although once it was spoken, the test audiences seemed to glom onto it.
Still, those young executives at WB encouraged him the show was a sure thing. Mr. Lawrence left for New York in May 2005, ready to hear "Nobody's Watching" announced on the WB schedule. "I was not in the business to fly to New York to feel like an idiot," he said. But that's what happened. WB passed on the show.
Now his precious baby was labeled a loser. "Who was going to pick up a show that the lowly WB had rejected?" Mr. Lawrence said. He and his partners pestered their agents to try to find it a home, only to have the agents begin to beg them not to make them mortify themselves that way.
In the eyes of everyone who counted, as Angela Bromstad, the head of the NBC Universal studio, put it, "It was essentially a dead project."
Mr. Lawrence resisted that fate, but he knew he could not hold onto his cast members very long. If they got other offers, they would be gone. Paul Adelstein, who played Jeff Tucker, was hired as a semi-regular on the Fox series "Prison Break."
The earth began to move just a few weeks ago. That's when Mr. Lawrence heard that the pilot had somehow made its way onto YouTube. He said he knows who posted the video but will not reveal the name because it looks as if it turned out to be a major favor.
In the first week that "Nobody's Watching" appeared on YouTube, it was not a featured video and attracted only about 4,000 viewings. But the reaction was powerfully positive from those who saw it, prompting the site to begin featuring it. Then the viewings exploded.
Even television executives have been downloading it. Ms. Bromstad said that the Comedy Central channel called last week and asked for a DVD of the pilot, and that ABC had also expressed interest.
But NBC retains a first shot at the show. Mr. Lawrence said that Mr. Reilly had called from his vacation in Mexico last week and said he wanted to take another look. The show's offbeat characters and rapid-fire dialogue might make it an ideal partner for another comedy on NBC, Ms. Bromstad said, a show the network has struggled to find a match for: Mr. Lawrence's "Scrubs."
Could it happen? Could a dead network show be revived because of the power of individuals supporting it on the Internet?
Ms. Bromstad was cautious in her prediction. "I think it will be interesting to find out," she said.
Mr. Lawrence said he believed this was exactly the kind of development that television needed to break all kinds of hidebound traditions, including presumptions about what people will and won't watch as comedy, and decisions that are made based on small organized focus groups.
"This is so much a better way to see if people are going to respond to a show," he said.
Of course even if a network does want to take a chance on "Nobody's Watching," there is still that issue of keeping the cast together. And Mr. Adelstein is already gone, right?
"We're hoping he gets killed off this season on 'Prison Break,' " Mr. Lawrence said. Mr. Adelstein plays a special agent on that series.
What Mr. Lawrence really wants right now is for so many people to start talking about his comedy pilot now featured on YouTube that some network executive will decide, "Now I can pick this up and I won't look dumb."

posted by cinegod @ 2:13 PM 0 comments