Three tv notes for tonight:
- 30 for 30: "June 17, 1994" debuts. A white Bronco is involved, but ain't John Elway.
- Top Chef DC starts. I stopped blogging about Masters out of boredom; we'll see if this piques my (and our) interest again.
- Remember how, for, like a decade, CBS would devote three hours this week of the year to the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 something movies and we'd make much hay before, during and after? (A Top 100 Movie Songs list with no Prince? Really? See esp., for fun and extensive commentary, our 2007 discussion of the revised top 100 films ever.) And then it ended. Well, tonight CBS is turning over ninety minutes of its time to the Paley Center so that Jeff Probst can list the thirty biggest surprises in primetime tv history:
"From Bobby Ewing's shower scene in Dallas to Dr. George O'Malley's shocking death on Grey's Anatomy, from American Idol to Saturday Night Live, from NCIS to The West Wing, from Dancing with the Stars to Deal or No Deal, this special will feature the most talked-about moments from comedy, drama, reality, variety, and game shows, and will include some of TV's biggest personalities, such as Tina Fey, Ellen DeGeneres, Howie Mandel, Chris Harrison, Arsenio Hall, Paul McCrane, Tom Bergeron, Aida Tuturro, Whoopi Goldberg, Paul Shaffer, Julie Chen, Regis Philbin, Patricia Heaton, Michael Weatherly, and David E. Kelley revealing what went on behind those surprising moments."Yeah, I'd say that array of personalities suggests at least one of the list items. But which surprising SNL moment did a viewer survey select -- Charles Rocket's twelve-letter mistake (or Jenny Slate's more recent four-letter transgression?) Sinead O'Connor's photo mutilation? Ashley Simpson's "acid reflux"? The banned-after-one-showing Conspiracy Theory Rock cartoon? "Radio Radio"?
Anyone else watching Work of Art?
ReplyDeleteAlso, on Discovery, the Top 25 Mythbusters moments. A 2 hr retrospective from 9-11pm est.
ReplyDeleteHow surprising was George O'Malley's death? Hadn't we already known that T.R. Knight was leaving the show? And while I've heard some of the Dancing With The Stars results were mildly surprising, would any of them really qualify as shocking?
ReplyDeleteIf you have some extra time online, TMC has a list of the 10 Best Comedy Lines from Classic Movies, as found here.
ReplyDeleteI've never understood the hilarity of "I'll have what she's having", basically because I always think of how uncomfortable I would be in a restaurant if some lady started o'ing out of nowhere. But that's just me.
Not just you. I'm mystified why that line gets belly laughs. The best it deserves is a polite chuckle.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone interested in SYTYCD Season 7? Top 11 dancers begin competing this evening.
ReplyDeleteI am. Though I was disappointed it's not a top 20, I enjoyed last week's exhibition show enough to overcome my qualms.
ReplyDeleteThere are not 27 better surprises in tv history than the Newhart finale. Neither Tina Fey's impression of Sarah Palin nor Ellen coming out on her tv show AFTER SHE HAD COME OUT IN TIME MAGAZINE were surprising.
ReplyDeleteI plan to let it fill the hole left in my heart when PR went to Lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI don't watch Grey's so I don't know the circumstances of the story, but didn't that happen on ER first with Omar Epps' character?
ReplyDeleteYeah, in re: Fey as Palin, I think the general thought on the day of his announcement was, "John McCain chose who to be his running mate? Oh, she looks a lot like Tina Fey. I bet Tina will come back to SNL for cameos." Not surprising at all.
ReplyDeleteDr. Gant (Epps) was a suicide, and the reveal was when his pager went off. In terms of ER surprises, yeah, that was better than the repeated helicopter attacks.
ReplyDelete