Tag / 24

by jim

Post Mortem – The Following

following3Hoping to recreate the magic that was 24 with Kiefer Sutherland, FOX turned to fellow movie star Kevin Bacon for a short-run series, each season clocking in at 15 episodes, to air on Monday nights.  Bacon, in his first starring television role, played FBI agent Ryan Hardy, renowned for dealing with serial killer Joe Carroll.  Throughout the series, Hardy hunts down Carroll and his apprentices, eventually becoming obsessed with him.

Sadly for FOX, The Following never became the hit that 24 was.  It managed to stick around for 3 seasons before being axed earlier this spring.  As of this writing, the remaining 2 episodes are sitting on the DVR waiting to be watched.  I’m sure the ending will be just as unsatisfying as the rest of the series.

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You Ought To Be In (11) Pictures

Movie_Reel_22Many years ago, using the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I started keeping track of all of the movies I had seen over the course of my lifetime.  The guide would list the two main stars for each movie, and that is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my database ever since.  So, given those guidelines, it is time to look at all of the actors that have starred in at least 10 films that I have seen, as of May 30th.

Today, we continue with the 11 actors that have starred in 11 movies that I have seen.

Jim Carrey

I first encountered the rubber faced comedian in his breakout film, 1994’s Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.  For a while there, Carrey became one of the biggest stars in the world.  I took in 2 films featuring him in 1997, 1999, and again in 2008.  Then, a funny thing happened and Jim Carrey wasn’t much of a star anymore.  The last film I saw him in was back 2009, when I saw the previous year’s Yes Man.

Michael Douglas

Michael Douglas made his first impression upon my movie-going consciousness with 1989’s War of the Roses.  My big Douglas year was 1995, when I saw him in Basic Instinct, Disclosure, and 1978’s Coma.  Things have been quiet for Douglas here in the 21st century, with the last film of his that I’ve seen, The Sentinel, was in 2006.

Woody Harrelson

In 1992, I headed to the theaters to see White Men Can’t Jump, where I first encountered Woody Harrelson in film. 7 of Harrelson’s films came between 1992 and 2000, after which there was a long lull.  Harrelson came back in to my world in 2008, then added 2 more in 2010.  2011 was the last time I saw one of his films, 2009’s Defendor.

Anne Hathaway

Like most of America, I first saw Anne Hathaway back in 2003 in The Princess Diaries.  In the intervening 11 years, she has been a steadfast presence on my movie (or television) screen, including 3 films in 2005 and 4 in 2009.  In 2011, I saw my last starring vehicle starring Hathaway, 2010’s Love And Other Drugs.

Katherine Heigl

Katherine Heigl burst on to the scene in 1994’s My Father, The Hero, which I took in the following year.  She dropped off my radar, went through puberty, and came back in 1999.  After achieving television stardom, she leaped back to the big screen in a big way in the mid-2000s, including 4 films in 3 years between 2006 and 2008.  The last time I saw a Heigl starring vehicle was 2011, when I took in both Life As We Know It and Killers.

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by jim

Save The Cheerleader, Save The Network?

Heroes-WallpaperIn the fall of 2006, NBC launched a new show about a group of people with special powers that were destined to come together to save the world.  The show was a ratings hit for the network, but poor storytelling quickly eroded any support for the show and it limped through four seasons before being cancelled.  Yesterday, NBC announced that it was bringing Heroes back in 2015 as an event mini-series, similar to FOX’s plans for 24 this summer.

The difference, of course, is that there were people looking for 24 to return, at least in movie form.  Nobody was expecting, or even hoping for, Heroes to return.  Any goodwill the series had from a strong first season had been burned away by the messes that followed for the next three that led to its cancellation in the first place.

The announcement gave no indication of who, if anyone, from the original cast would be involved in this reboot.  I can’t even remember where any of the characters were left off, so I can’t even speculate on who would possibly be involved.  One would imagine the Zachary Quinto and Hayden Panettiere, the two breakout stars, would have little interest in returning, given their current commitments.

I can’t imagine a world where this gambit turns out well for NBC.  The network has seemingly turned its back on developing original content and has instead devoted itself to dusting off old properties in the hopes that familiarity will be enough to draw an audience.  That strategy didn’t work for Bionic Woman, Knight Rider, or Ironside.  We’ll have to wait until next summer to see if it pans out for Heroes.

by jim

FOX Upfronts

24

The big news coming out of FOX’s upfront presentation wasn’t what would be airing in the fall, but next summer.  24 is coming back as a 12-episode mini-series, with Kiefer Sutherland back on board as Jack Bauer.  Will a new series work after a 4 year hiatus?  Will any other former cast members be back?  There’s lots of questions surrounding this announcement, with little in the way of answers this far in advance.

Beyond that, I don’t know how much stock to put in the announced schedules.  As usual, FOX has announced three different schedules, one for September, one for November once the World Series concludes, and one for January.  And, if the past is any indicator, all of the plans will go out the window once fall finally comes around. Bones gets moved to Friday for at least the fourth time, despite never actually airing a new episode on a Friday.  Raising Hope is also expected to move to Fridays come November.  Beyond that, there is not much movement for existing shows.  Did I mention 24 is coming back?

by jim

Book 4 (of 52) – The Revolution Was Televised

The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers And Slayers Who Changed TV Drama Forever - Alan Sepinwall

The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers And Slayers Who Changed TV Drama Forever – Alan Sepinwall

Starting in the late 1990s, as cable networks started to look to provide more viewing options than reruns of Benson and The Rockford Files and struggling netlets looked to find an identity in order to challenge the big 4, television entered what can only be described as a golden age of quality programming.  TV critic Alan Sepinwall looks at the 12 shows that blazed this new trail, garnering hundreds of Emmy nominations in their wake.

The main leader of this revolution was HBO, which aired 4 of the 12 series Sepinwall profiled.  Whether it was the goings on in Emerald City in the prison drama Oz or the dirty dealings of the western Deadwood or the drug-fueled and gang-infested streets of Baltimore in The Wire or the family run New Jersey business on The Sopranos, HBO showed that their “It’s not TV, it’s HBO” promos were more than just a slogan.

Seeing the success that HBO had with their scripted dramas, other cable networks looked to change their fortunes by following the same path.  FX was looking to reinvent itself and succeeded with The Shield.  AMC broke through in a big way with two hits, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, the only two shows in the book that are still on the air.  Even the channel formerly known as SciFi managed to find themselves a hit with the remake of Battlestar Galactica.

The one place it is much harder to be revolutionary is on network TV, but that doesn’t mean it is impossible.  Against all odds, ABC took a germ of an idea from an outgoing network chief and somehow ended up with Lost.  The WB, trying to find something to air besides “ethnic” sitcoms, turned to a re-imagined Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  NBC also looked to the cineplex for inspiration and found themselves with Friday Night Lights.  Not to be outdone, FOX managed to turn what could have become a tiring gimmick into the long running 24.

Sepinwall goes back and interviews most of the power-brokers behind the scenes of these revolutionary shows and provides an in-depth look at how they came to be and the struggles it took to get them on the air.  If I wasn’t already reading Sepinwall’s reviews, I would certainly start after finishing this book.

by jim

25 Years Of Fox – Drama

The Fox network celebrated its 25th anniversary last Sunday night in a 2 hour retrospective.  Here’s a final look back at some of the dramas they have broadcast over the years, based on Wikipedia’s list:

24: One of the best shows ever to air on any network, let alone Fox.  The nation’s introduction to Jack Bauer and the Counter Terrorism Unit was ironically delayed, as the pilot was pushed back following the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Ally McBeal: David E. Kelley’s special brand of whimsy took hold at a Boston (where else?) law firm featuring young, mostly attractive lawyers who lived for their quirks.

Beverly Hills, 90210: It started off as a show tackling the relevant teen issues of the day, but took off when it embraced its inner soap.  Who can forget Dylan and Kelly on the beach while Brenda was in Paris, Brandon leading the student body protest declaring that “Donna Martin Graduates”, or Donna trying to keep her virginity for years and years, before finally giving it up to young David Silver.

Boston Public: David E. Kelley again infiltrates Boston, this time focussing on the teachers and administrators at a school.

The Chicago Code: A one season wonder focusing on a group of cops trying to take down corruption at city hall.

Class of ’96: I enjoyed the show, but it tried to be the original issues-based 90210 except in college, and who needed that when we had the current 90210 in college?

Dark Angel: Jessica Alba starred as a genetically altered being trying to take down the people that created her.

Drive: Only four issues of this show starring Nathan Fillion and a young Emma Stone ever made it to air.

Dollhouse: Somehow Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku got two seasons of Dollhouse on the air.

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