'Supernatural' creator on his show's familiar familial mythology
With network shows going on hiatus till the new year, the holiday season is a ripe time to watch series that you haven’t caught up on yet or have missed entirely. Our Brian Truitt thinks the one show you should be watching if you’re not already is Supernatural, the CW horror drama starring Jared Padalecki (pictured, on left) and Jensen Ackles as a pair of demon-hunting brothers currently trying to stop Lucifer and the Apocalypse in the show’s fifth season. If you want to check out the DVDs over your holiday break, Brian says the past four seasons are as witty, emotional and well-written as this year, which has taken the show’s mythology to a whole new level. Yesterday, Brian talked with Supernatural creator Eric Kripke, and while we’ll have more from the interview online and on my Who’s News page around when the show returns Jan. 21, the two talked a little about the biblical goings-on that has made this season of Supernatural a must-see.
Photo courtesy of the CW
Oprah has wanted to quit before now
Today's talk about Oprah Winfrey's decision to wrap up her syndicated talk show in 2011 is bringing back memories of a conversation I had with her 11 years ago on that very topic. We were in her elegant but modest office at Harpo Studios in Chicago, steps away from where her shows are taped, and though she was game to talk about anything, it was her coming movie Beloved most on her mind. She confessed that when she went to Philadelphia to shoot that movie in 1997 — she produced and starred as a haunted former slave — she had decided to quit the talk show. She was tired of talk, she told me, and wanted to focus on films. But midway through the three-month shoot she had an epiphany. After an agonizing scene with her co-star Danny Glover, she said, "I thought, 'How dare
I think that I could be tired? Who am I to even say the words 'I am
tired'? I thought, 'You come from a people with no voice, no money, no
power, no vision, no vehicle for themselves and their children. You've
been given this.' " So she decided to continue and it was that fall of 1998 that she abandoned the sensational and announced her new TV mission — helping people improve their lives.
In that same interview, she said something I remember often: "Everything is about imagery. We're people who respond
to imagery. You need to see something different so you can feel
something different." Oprah is more of a national institution now than she was that summer she decided that she was meant to use her voice and vision on television. She has spent all of her adult life on TV. And while I understand that — as she said — "it feels right in my bones and it feels right in my spirit," to wrap it up after 25 years, the woman now has her own network. I think it's a pretty safe bet that she'll be back.
Photo courtesy of Harpo
November 17, 2009
Roguish risk-takers are TV's success stories
November 13, 2009
Exclusive: Zachary Levi talks possible early 'Chuck' return
With all the recent cancellations of shows — Southland, Eastwick, Dollhouse — it’s time for some good news to come from TV-land. One of the favorite shows among our staffers is Chuck, the NBC action comedy starring Zachary Levi as a mild-mannered nerd-turned-spy. It just avoided the Grim Reaper last spring to be picked up for its third season, and is tentatively scheduled to come back in March. Not so fast, though, because there’s a rumor that Chuck may return as early as January. Our Brian Truitt caught up with Levi yesterday for a feature in the magazine next month pegged to his upcoming role in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, and wanted to get the early premiere scoop from Chuck himself. “Yeah, that’s a pretty solid rumor,” Levi says, taking a break from the editing bay after wrapping an episode of Chuck that he directed (which will be the ninth of the next season). Read below for more of what Brian found out from Levi, including some hints about Chuck’s upcoming season.
Photos courtesy of NBC
George Lopez on late night, Ed Begley Jr. on green living
In this week's issue, we're spotlighting two longtime TV actors and their newest projects on the small screen. First, we talk with George Lopez, the popular standup comedian and star of The George Lopez Show, about his new Lopez Tonight talk show airing on TBS Mondays through Thursdays on late night. It started this past Monday (watch a clip of him and Ellen DeGeneres below), and in the feature, Lopez chats about how his show is different from the likes of David Letterman's and Jay Leno's, and what it's like playing golf with Clint Eastwood. Also, we tracked down former St. Elsewhere star Ed Begley Jr. about his latest passion: the environment. You can see him with wife Rachelle Carson on the Planet Green channel's Living with Ed, but just for our readers, the author of Ed Begley Jr.'s Guide to Sustainable Living gives some of his best tips on how to live eco-friendly and "off the grid."
Photo by Gavin Bond
November 10, 2009
'Sesame Street' at 40 gets a hot celebrity guest
Let's raise a glass of milk today and toast Sesame Street's 40th anniversary. My daughter — who turns 20 on Saturday — learned to count, sing and covet the muppets thanks to a daily dose of PBS's beloved children's show; I tuned in for the celebrity guests — from Robert De Niro to Julia Roberts. Celebrities with kids love to appear on Sesame Street. First Lady Michelle Obama is a special guest today, teaching kids about healthy eating. But she's one in a long line of stars who have hit the Street and as I searched for video I found these hilarious outtakes of a scene between Ricky Gervais and Elmo. Gervais brings out a whole different side of Elmo.
November 06, 2009
Jim Caviezel stars in AMC's 'The Prisoner'
Although Mad Men ends its season this Sunday on AMC, its departure makes way for the miniseries event The Prisoner, a reimagining of the classic 1960s British series that airs six hours over three nights beginning Sunday, Nov. 15. The miniseries stars movie actor Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ) as Six, a man who finds himself mysteriously trapped in a place called The Village where the residents (led by the enigmatic Two, played by Ian McKellen) are known as numbers and are under constant surveillance. Our Brian Truitt talked with Caviezel way back in July for a piece in this weekend's magazine, but read below for Caviezel's thoughts on a motorcycle accident that happened just a week before the interview and how it ties into the premise of The Prisoner. Also, for more on the miniseries, download this digital comic and check out a clip from the miniseries.
October 30, 2009
Spencer Grammer on Monday's midseason finale of 'Greek'
Monday night brings the mid-season finale of the college-centric ABC Family show Greek, and it will be of much interest to longtime viewers because the end of this week’s episode featured a long-awaited kiss between two of the show’s main characters. Former lovers Casey — the bubbly, driven sorority girl played by Spencer Grammer (daughter of Cheers and Frasier star Kelsey Grammer) — and Cappie, Scott M. Foster’s witty slacker frat guy, have been on and off friends so far in the show’s three seasons, but many fans have wanted to see them back together for a while now. Our Brian Truitt talked with Grammer, 26, who’s just as effusive as her character, just after she finished up an archery lesson for an upcoming episode (“It really hurts when you hit yourself with the bow, just so you know,” she quips), so read below for their conversation and check out a clip featuring Grammer and Foster from Monday's Greek.
Photos courtesy of ABC Family
October 22, 2009
Kristen Bell talks 'Astro Boy,' 'Burlesque' and being an 'It girl'
Kristen Bell will be much seen and heard in the next few months, with her new romantic comedy Couple’s Retreat in theaters now, When in Rome beginning in January and the new cartoon Astro Boy, out tomorrow. The former Veronica Mars actress (and voice of the unseen narrator in Gossip Girl) stars in the animated family adventure with Nicolas Cage, Samuel L. Jackson, Charlize Theron and Freddie Highmore, who voices the pint-sized title hero. Our Brian Truitt caught up with Bell on the day after she signed on for the new movie Burlesque, co-starring Christina Aguilera, so read below for their conversation and check out this clip from Astro Boy.
Photos courtesy of USA Today, Summit Entertainment
October 21, 2009
Matt Bomer talks about his new 'White Collar' gig
Matt Bomer — that handsome guy pictured right — says his stint on NBC's Chuck as super-spy Bryce Larkin directly led to his starring role as ace con artist Neal Caffrey on the new series White Collar, premiering Friday night on the USA Network (check out a clip below). “Bryce is how I learned to play cool under pressure,” says the 32-year-old Houston native. “What’s fun about both those characters is they’re sort of on the fringe – they don’t really subscribe to a standard set of rules. They like to operate on their own and be self-sufficient, and there’s something about that that’s probably hard for other characters to trust.” One of those "other characters" in White Collar is FBI agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) who is teamed with Neal, his old enemy, to bust elusive bad guys. Our Brian Truitt talked with Bomer for a piece in my Who's News column running next month. But you can read below now for the actor’s take on his new character, growing up in Texas and what he misses out on being a series regular.
Photos courtesy of USA Network
