Category Archives: Winter Press Tour 2011

On Tonight: Gloria Steinem, Reluctant Heroine

By Roger Catlin | Published: August 15, 2011
The TV Critics Association summer press tour came this year in bunny ears. There was a visit to the Playboy Mansion so they could introduce their programming. NBC presented a panel on its new drama series “The Playboy Club.” And a woman who earned her name going underground as a bunny in one of those [...]
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What’s Behind the ‘Traffic Light’

By Roger Catlin | Published: February 11, 2011
The new comedy “Traffic Light” debuted on Fox this week, to some pretty light ratings. Just 4.59 million tuned in for the new series starring  David Denman, Liza Lapira, Nelson Franklin as a bunch of guys at different stages in their relationships. Even its producers, which includes Connecticut native David ,Hemingson, agree the title can [...]
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Shawn Ryan Getting Up to ‘Code’

By Roger Catlin | Published: February 11, 2011
The best new drama of the season, Fox’s “Chicago Code,” grew since it was originally titled “Ride Along,” executive producer Shawn Ryan says. “It became much, much more than I originally intended it,” Ryan told reporters at press tour last month. “The original concept was to try to do a police show in Chicago that [...]
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Heidi Klum Gets Funny with Kids

By Roger Catlin | Published: February 1, 2011
Heidi Klum turns Art Linkletter in her new Lifetime series. Though she’s somewhat of a stern host on “Project Runway,” she’s a conduit for kids on the new “Seriously Funny Kids,” premiering tonight. She interviews them, does challenges with them and sometimes plays pranks on them. Mostly to see how funny they are. But, she [...]
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The Onion News Takeover

By Roger Catlin | Published: January 29, 2011
From its origins as a satiric newspaper in Wisconsin, the Onion has become something of an empire suddently this month with the premieres of both “The Onion News Network” on IFC and “Onion SportsDome” on Comedy Central. Both expertly parody the slickest excesses of their targets with the dense parody found in its publications and [...]
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Joan Rivers, Off the Red Carpet and on to Reality TV

By Roger Catlin | Published: January 29, 2011
Joan and Melissa Rivers are back on cable, but not on the red carpets where they stood sentinel for so long. We’ve done it,” says Melissa, who stars with her mother on “Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best” that started this week on WE. The fun has gone out of it, says Joan Rivers.  “When [...]
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Olivia Munn’s Imperfect Sitcom

By Roger Catlin | Published: January 23, 2011
One weak spot on the three-hour comedy night on NBC Thursday, which resulted in pretty good ratings for both “The Office” and “Parks & Recreation,” seen by 8.2 million and 6.1 million respectively, was the measly 4.1 million who saw the pilot for the new “Perfect Couples.” The show had theoretically premiered before.  After the [...]
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Kelley’s Law: New Drama from Former Whalers Stickboy

By Roger Catlin | Published: January 22, 2011
I wasn’t surprised to see that “Harry’s Law” did fairly well in its debut this week, drawing 11 million viewers. There may be a lingering desire for the mix of humor, law, political speech-making and absurdity that kept “Boston Legal” on the air so long. “Harry’s Law” is the first new show from creator David [...]
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Charlie Sheen: Too Big to Pull

By Roger Catlin | Published: January 14, 2011
CBS kept the company line when discussing Charlie Sheen, who stars as a cad on TV’s most successful comedy and ends up in headlines for his cavorting with call girls and porn stars Just as Chuck Lorre played dumb for a joke when the issue came up during the last TV critics press tour, CBS [...]
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Conan: It Still Hurts

By Roger Catlin | Published: January 13, 2011
Conan O’Brien sat forlornly in a director’s chair on his modest talk show set. It’d been months since the turmoil that yanked him from “The Tonight Show,” two months since he premiered his resulting on cable. And while he seems at last at ease and having fun in the relative shadowland of basic cable, after [...]
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