Be More Funny
What the hell is going on over at Saturday Night Live? I was pleasantly surprised last year at how smooth the transition from Tina Fey to Seth Meyers as head writer was. I thought last season produced many memorable sketches and digital shorts and was looking forward to the entire cast returning this year. Well oops I crapped my expectations. This season has gotten off to the slowest start in years and while its always fashionable to bash the show as being unfunny, for the first time I’m finding some real truth in that statement. Sure it didn’t help that two of the first three hosts weren’t actors (LeBron James and Jon Bon Jovi) but as Payton Manning showed last year, that’s not necessarily the kiss of death. Then they inexplicably found a way to make Seth Rogen, the one actor they did have, unfunny. Perhaps the most telling sign that this season is in trouble came Saturday night when the technical side of the show fell apart. People missed their cues, actors walked in front of cameras, sets fell apart, camera shots were missed, and the whole show had a feeling of confusion by cast and crew. I’ll probably always keep my season pass to SNL on my TiVo but it better shape up or it will become strictly Fast Forward viewing.
Earl Had to Die
Well the latest casualty in my Fall schedule is in and sadly it’s a returning favorite. After two years of white trash jokes, over the top guest stars, and feel good morality stories I’m killing My Name is Earl. The show still makes me chuckle but I’m just tired of the same thing over and over and over again. While the producers tried to shake things up this season by placing Earl in the slammer the results have been mediocre to say the least. While last week’s flashback episode provided some answers to certain character’s back stories, I was already not caring and thinking about 30 Rock and The Office. Earl is still better then a lot of garbage on TV and I hope it sticks around but its no longer must see or even must TiVo for me.
Biting off more then I can chew
Earl was the third show to get cut from my schedule and already I’ve got my fourth. The first was Kitchen Nightmares which suffered from going up against Bionic Woman and Gossip Girl. Then How I Met Your Mother got the ax when I realized the 3 camera sitcom is dead to me. Earl makes 3 for the reason’s above and now a fourth show is off my radar before I’ve even seen it. Viva Laughlin, the new musical dramedy from CBS, just premiered and I’ve already decided its out. Bad reviews, behind the scenes turmoil and a premise that offers high highs but more likely terrible lows, all impacted my decision. In the end though I think I cut it mostly because I’m a bit overwhelmed. Usually more shows I’m watching either get cancelled or turn out to be no good but so far I’m pretty happy with shows both old and new. Take a look at what I’ve got on my plate: Monday and Thursday consist of about 4 hours of programming, Tuesday and Sunday about 2 hours, and Wednesday is the grand daddy of them all with 8-10 hours of new programming each week. Throw in a few Friday shows like Best Week Ever and The Soup plus the occasional new MTV/VH1 show and you’ve got one TV addled Elliot. Anyhoo sorry to Hugh Jackman and his folks at Viva Laughlin, prove me wrong by creating something extraordinary that will force me to purchase you on DVD next year.
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Viva Laughlin
What it’s about: Based on a BBC series called Blackpool, Viva Laughlin is about a guy who opens a brand new casino in a smaller city in Nevada. Did I mention that this is a musical?
What’s good: Oh sweet Lord, how I love this show. If you’d told me that CBS was going to put on an Americanized remake of an interesting but not great Brit-drama and that the characters would spontaneously start singing, I wouldn’ve told you that sounded like certain disaster. To have it turn out to be the best network show of the season (or at least my personal favorite – by a very wide margin – is damn near miraculous.
It’s important to note for the skeptical (though this might not allay any reservations) that the songs are not original compositions, but pop tunes spanning the last 40 or 50 years. “Viva Las Vegas” and Blondie’s “One Way or Another” are some notable ones. The characters don’t lip synch or merely sing…they sing along with the original track, so you can hear both at once…an interesting and confident stylistic choice.
Cast is also great. Lloyd Owen, a british actor with a long career behind him plays the lead, and he’s got just the right amount of smarmy confidence and, when the story calls for it, abject fear. And, somehow, they got Hugh Jackman (Wolverine from Oklahoma!) to play the bad guy! Melanie Griffith makes an appearance as well as a sort of washed-up femme fatale.
Viva Laughlin is totally ridiculous and extremely fun to watch. It reminded me a lot of the early seasons of Nip/Tuck, only without the mean-streak and pretentious aspirations. Oh, and with singing.
What’s not so good: Hell, I don’t know. I just really, really love this show.
Will it be a hit? FOR SURE !!!!!!
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Viva Laughlin Preview - New Series From CBS
I know what I like, and I like this Show !!!
You decide if you like Viva Laughlin:
copy and paste or double click on these links:
New Clip on Viva Laughlin:
http://cosmopost.com/SizzleRecap.html
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FDVpwO4fWb0
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Dr1Gw3emoKk&mode=related&search
http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/3325824/
http://www.upn.com/primetime/viva_laughlin/
VIVA LAUGHLIN, the new mystery drama with music, will have a special preview on Thursday, Oct. 18 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) following CSI before moving to its regular Sunday (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) time period on Oct. 21 to take advantage of a two week window in the schedule without football overruns.
Thursday, Oct. 18
10:00-11:00 PM VIVA LAUGHLIN (Special Preview)
Sunday, Oct. 21
8:00-9:00 PM VIVA LAUGHLIN (Time Period Premiere)
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Click here: Hugh Jackman in a whirl from 'Australia' to 'Laughlin' - USATODAY.com
Hugh Jackman in a whirl from 'Australia' to 'Laughlin'
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Casino king: Executive producer Hugh Jackman plays mogul Nicky Fontana in at least four episodes of Viva Laughlin.
By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY
Hugh Jackman's new TV project is an intercontinental effort.
While filming Australia in Australia, the movie star has been as involved as he can be as an executive producer of CBS' Viva Laughlin, a mystery drama mixed with music, based on the English series Viva Blackpool.
"I have a mountain high of DVDs of dailies. I watch every (one) that comes," says Jackman, 39, speaking by phone from Australia.
With producing partner John Palermo, he helped adapt Blackpool and has taken part in casting, story development and other duties, often via phone and e-mail. He will appear in Thursday's premiere (10 ET/PT, before moving to Sunday, 8 p.m. ET/PT) and at least three more episodes.
Jackman plays Nicky Fontana, a villainous casino mogul and "mortal enemy" of Ripley Holden (Lloyd Owen), a blend of family man and rogue who wants to open a casino in Laughlin, Nev.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: CBS | Australia | Broadway | Nicole Kidman | Hugh Jackman | X-Men | Laughlin | Blackpool
Ripley, facing the demands of his wife (Mädchen Amick) and two teens, must battle Nicky and his right-hand man (DB Woodside) and fend off a murder investigation. Ripley is "a bit of a Barnum character but he also … is somewhat of a Tony Soprano," Jackman says.
The native Australian, who won a Tony for the Broadway musical The Boy From Oz, makes a dramatic entry, landing on a roof via helicopter and strutting through a casino singing The Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil.
Singing makes Laughlin stand out from other shows, but Jackman, echoing the CBS line, says it's not a musical. "I'm even nervous to say it's a musical drama. It sets up so many judgments. Immediately, a lot of people go, 'Ugh, musical? I'm not into musicals.' It's a drama. I think the musical element is going to be something that is delicious to people, but the show will live or die by the drama."
He rejects references to the series Cop Rock, a legendary 1990 failure that featured singing, and prefers to point to the success of Chicago, Moulin Rouge and Hairspray. Because Laughlin features pop hits, he believes viewers will develop a comfort level.
Growing up, Jackman liked musicals, "but I wouldn't say I was obsessed with them." He participated while attending a boys' school because it was a chance to meet girls. He was just out of drama school looking for a job when he got a role in a musical. Today, if he feels passion for a musical, he gets involved.
With his musical experience, Jackman says he has tried to give support and suggestions to the cast, which includes Melanie Griffith, Eric Winter, P.J. Byrne, Ellen Woglom and Carter Jenkins. Some are new to the form, but Owen, Jackman says, is a natural. "He's got a phenomenal voice. He's kind of got a Richard Burton quality."
While working on Australia, Jackman is getting musical advice from the film's director, Baz Luhrmann, who also wrote and directed Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge. "Baz has been very helpful. He reinvented the art form."
In Australia, a drama set in the northern part of the country on the cusp of World War II, Jackman's ranch worker and Kidman's English aristocrat are on a cattle drive when they experience the bombing of Darwin, Australia, by Japanese forces. He says it's bigger than any other film shot in Australia.
"It's probably the role of a lifetime for me, this feast of a movie. It's Gone With the Wind and Out of Africa and The African Queen for me," he says.
It also allows Jackman the comforts of home, where he lives with his wife and two children. He will be in Australia and New Zealand for the filming of Wolverine, in which he reprises his role from the X-Men movies. In the meantime, moviegoers will be able to see him in The Tourist, which may have a new title when it hits screens in 2008.
His commitment to musical entertainment will continue with Carousel, a film remake of the Broadway musical and movie that he has in development.
He says there will be an audience for that, just as he does for Laughlin.
"When it's done right, it works," he says. Laughlin "is a show that will take people by surprise."
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