Jack Be Awesome! McBrayer Talks 30 Rock
Yippee! 30 Rock returns tonight, and if you haven't seen it yet, you are missing out! Tune in tonight for a kooky Seinfeld-themed ep, but keep your eye on this kid: Jack McBrayer. He plays Kenneth the Page, and he's just about one of the funniest guys around. To know him is to love him!
To celebrate, here's a little Q&A with Jack, in which he talks about young Kenneth's prospects for the future, what's coming up on the show and the benefits of the big time. Read on, and enjoy!
One of the things I love about Kenneth is that he loves television. He's my people! Does Kenneth know what he wants to do in TV? Does he want to be a page when he's 60? Does he want to be Jack Donaghy?
That's a good question. I think he'd like to be a page when he's 60, but with more responsibility.
And a digital alarm clock.
A digital alarm clock and maybe deciding what shows make it on TV.
He's like a D-girl!
Half-development, half-page would be fantastic.
And you're an improv guy by training, yes?
By training, not by trade—improv is not a paying gig. But yes, that's my background. In fact, that's how I met Tina [Fey]—at Second City in Chicago.
And she wrote this wonderful part for you, and now you're a breakout star, so God bless her. Improv is not quite writing, but it's in a similar creative vein. Do you have fantasies of heading into the writers' room yourself? Do you pitch jokes?
Well…not even necessarily our writers' room at 30 Rock, because, I mean, those guys [have] got it down pat, but it's really nice to be able to say, "I have an idea for a movie,” and go to the Judd Apatows or the Adam McKays of the world and they listen!
I talked to Tina recently, and she said, "I think we might have some love affairs for Kenneth this year."
It's getting crazy already. A very strong libido for Mr. Ken Parcell.
Insane! What's going on with him?
I don't know, I just read the words off the script.
And you do it very, very well. Are these all girl relationships?
Well, Will Arnett makes a return this season.
And that will be fun. Are you doing more work with Alec Baldwin? Because you guys work great together.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Actually it's been great this season because I've done a lot more work with Jane Krakowski and more stuff with Tracy [Morgan] and some stuff with Alec as well.
I would imagine Jane's character is not incredibly patient or sympathetic.
Actually they have a very good rapport at the start of the season, who knows how that will turn out, but so far so good.
How come? What are they working on together?
Well, Jenna's in a very vulnerable position, and Kenneth is a strong shoulder to lean on. It's really fun, you're going to like it.
Spoiler Chat: Lost Negotiates, Heroes Fly, Spies Burn
Howdy, tubers! I'm actually writing this from the wilds of San Diego today (where I'm dealing with a family thing), so I hope you'll forgive today's chat being a little shorter than usual—the telegraph wires are all tangled up and my Morse code isn't what it used to be…
From Tom in Minnesota: Will Men in Trees come back? Is it canceled?
Men in Trees is returning! I have firsthand and gluteus-maximus knowledge of this, because I just so happened to share a Pilates class the other day (gawd, how Hollywood does that sound?!) with Lauren Tom, who plays Mai (Buzz's kooky wife). She mentioned, during butt-lifting bungee kicks, that she's uprooting her whole fam and moving to Vancouver, where Men in Trees is filmed. A good sign for its longevity, no?
Michelle in Sandy, Utah: Is ABC going to finish airing season one of Men in Trees any time soon?
The remaining eps of this season won't air in the United States until next fall, when ABC runs them as part of a "superseason," lumping them together with the beginning of season two. However, if you're craving MIT dish, allow me to do a little reader-reader matchmaking: Rachel in Auckland, New Zealand, meet Michelle in Sandy, Utah. Michelle, Rachel. Now, Rachel, what say you? "A weird twist of fate has meant New Zealand will be screening the final episodes of the first season of Men in Trees before they screen in the U.S. You can read the recaps at throng." Yay for Kiwi TV!
Kelly: Any scoop on So You Think You Can Dance?
Stand by for a juicy item tomorrow! But out of curiosity, let me know: Am I the only one who's kinda in love with Pasha? I know, I know, I'm getting married in less than three weeks—deleting such thoughts from my mind.
Meg in Pensacola, Florida: What is the scoop on Traveler? Is it coming back?
This was supposed to be in the Vine show this week but it disappeared—just like Traveler probably will when it wraps up its summer run. There's little to no chance of a second season. Sorry, kids, I know a lot of you were instant fans.
Peter in Des Moines, Iowa: Will Ron Moore be involved in David Eick's version of Bionic Woman?
Ron told me that Bionic's offices are right next door to Battlestar's offices, so they'll definitely be hanging out together, but once Battlestar Galatica is over, he's going to be focused on a big-screen remake of The Thing and writing the sequel to I, Robot.
Alex from Fort Worth, Texas: Is Degrassi ending after the current season?
No, the show returns for a seventh season, set during the second semester of the school year.
Clo in Atlanta: Is Alona Tal, who plays Jo on Supernatural, returning next season? I hope so, because I love her chemistry with Jensen Ackles.
The Magic 8 Ball says…very doubtful. According to Alona's reps, anything is possible, but since the show hasn't done anything with her character for a long time, they're not expecting a call any time soon. Alona—best known to many of you as Veronica Mars' Meg Manning—does, however, appear in the Cane pilot for CBS, and she should be recurring on that show as the girlfriend of Jamie Vega, one of the sons of Jimmy Smits' character.
Cat in Norwalk, Connecticut: I’m sad Studio 60 isn’t coming back for another season. Do you know whether or not Matt and Harriet will be together when it ends?
I don’t know how Aaron Sorkin plans to tie up the Matt and Harri storyline on the show, but I do know that in real life, they’re totally back together! How do I know? Because Friday was opening night at the Hollywood Bowl and Ms. Kristin Chenoweth performed. And guess who her date was? Yes, Mr. Sorkin, himself! A backstage birdie tells me the two were all smiles and that Aaron was overheard thanking a fan for sticking with Studio 60 all season and saying, “Don’t forget to watch the finale on Thursday. It’s a good one.” (Planet Gossip's Marc Malkin has more on Sorkin and Chenoweth—and a hilarious Jack Black sighting—at the Hollywood Bowl here.)
Victoria in Chicago: The previews for Burn Notice on USA look pretty good, plus Jeffrey Donovan is never bad to look at. Have you heard anything about this show? Worth watching?
It's a fun show, and oddly believable for being about a freelance spy trapped in Miami with his neurotic mother. The main character, Michael Westen, reminds me of MacGyver and/or Michael Scofield. I talked to the creator, Matt Nix, this morning, and he told me they're working on keeping the action as realistic as possible: "I've always been interested in the nitty-gritty of espionage. A really good friend of my dad's when I was little…had been in the CIA. He would tell me things. So, I knew when I was five, like, a CIA agent never parks in the same parking space twice. Plus, our consulting producer worked in private intelligence for years, and my father-in-law was a captain in the Navy SEALs, so we download a lot of stuff from them."
Deirdre: Have you heard if NCIS is coming back? There are rumors that Mark Harmon may not be. Please say it isn't so!
NCIS and Mark are absolutely returning. Worry not. By the way, I recently chatted up an NCIS writer, and it sounds like it's smooth sailing with the new show runners.
Ray in New York: Rumor has it that the most beautiful woman in the world, Aishwarya Rai, is doing an eight-episode stint on Heroes next season. I'll believe it when I hear it from you.
Don't believe it. According to studio sources, it's just not true.
Margaret in Idaho: Congrats on your wedding! When is it, and how long will you be gone?
I suppose this is as good a time as any to break the news that I'll be gone for a little more than a month, starting July 6 (next Friday). The fantastically out-of-this-world news for you is that I happen to work with the best damn people in the world, Korbi Ghosh and Jennifer Godwin, who will be taking over the section in my absence. They love TV. I love them. They love you. And trust me, you'll love them. It's gonna be a big ol' lovefest. And when I come back (Aug. 15), we'll have much to discuss about the TV lands I've visited and, of course, the new fall season! in the meantime, we'll be searching for a new term for "Future Husband." Is it appropriate or not for a married girl to use? Will John Stamos be offended by a new moniker? Can I move to Utah? Feel free to discuss in the comment below, along with your own suggestions for the new phrase for TV crushes!
SPOILER ZONE
Abandon hope all ye who enter here.
Brandi in Taos, New Mexico: What's the latest on Lost? Will Michael come back? Please say yes!
I can tell you that producers definitely have made an offer for Harold Perrineau to return in the new season, which they also did last season (Harold declined because he was working on a pilot). Back then, Harold was offered a truckload of money. Now, sources tell me he wants that same truckload. The question is whether he will receive it—hence, the holdup. I, for one, am happy to empty out my piggy bank and couch cushions and contribute to the H.P. Fund, for I miss him so. Who's with me?!
Mari in Bloomington, Indiana: Any Weeds news? When does it start up again?
As of now, the show is set to return Aug. 13. And I’m hearing Ms. Nancy Botwin might be getting some artwork done this season…on her body.
Amy in Albion, Illinois: Weeds! Any Mary-Kate Olsen info?
Yeah, I’m hearing she’s actually quite good in the role she’s taken on, and I can’t wait to get my screener of the first few eps! But she’s not the only new young lady we're welcoming to the show this year. I’m told there’s a twentysomething biker be-yotch hangin’ around Agrestic these days, and she shakes things up a bit.
Caitlin in Beverly Hills: Okay, please, please tell us straight, who is it that won't return to Heroes? I'm going crazy worrying that it might be Adrian.
It'll be Adrian Pasdar when pigs are flying through the sky with Nathan Petrelli.
Robyn in Louisville, Kentucky: Prison Break news, please!
Season three ushers in a whole new group of boys behind bars. I doubt we’ll fall for them like we did for Sucre, C-Note and even T-Bag, but you never know…
Kyle in Benton Harbor, Michigan: This is a good season of The 4400 so far, don’t you think? Do you have any scoop on what’s coming up?
It is! And I do! Executive producer Ira Behr told me that the first four eps this year show us what life is like for some of the “extracrispies,” so we’ve got a couple more of those coming down the pike. The next three dig heavily into the mythology of the series. He describes episode 8 as a sort of “one-off” palette cleanser. Episodes 9 and 10 bring Richard Tyler back and deal with his whole storyline, and eps 11, 12 and 13 just go into “space madness,” leading the show into whole new territory for season five!
Dani in Springfield, New Jersey: I need Rescue Me news!
I’m hearing there are two deaths in this week’s episode. One of them is a serious surprise, and very sad.
Angie in Phoenix: Could you give some more scoop on shows starting soon, like My Boys?
I've seen the first three eps of My Boys, and I have four words for you: Jack McBrayer cameo, squee! In other news, Ian Gomez appears as a pompous talk-show host, and OMG Keith Dudemeister is cheating on Elliot Reid! (Scrubs' Travis Schuldt guests as a Cubs pitcher who flirts shamelessly with P.J.)
Gina in Los Angeles: Is Las Vegas coming back next season?
Yup, and I hear a stripper moves in with Danny and Delinda.
Teresa from Petaluma, California: Anything on Emma and Sean from Degrassi?
Emma and Sean are getting it on, and they get an abrupt wake-up call when Emma finds out she could be pregnant.
Tobey from Wichita, Kansas: Any scoop on the new Daily Planet editor on Smallville?
The new Daily Planet editor is MIA for the season premiere—but Jimmy Olsen returns.
—Additional reporting Korbi Ghosh, Jennifer Godwin and Michael Berner
Hunter Stephenson’s Script Review: Cocaine Cowboys Pilot for HBO
Earlier this month, we reported on the possibility of a new HBO show based on 2006’s engrossing hit documentary, Cocaine Cowboys, from uber players Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer. Today, Slashfilm gives you an exclusive review of the script for Cocaine Cowboys‘ pilot episode written by Billy Corben and David Cypkin of Rakontur, the Miami-based production company behind the doc and its sequel (set for release this July). For legal reasons, we’ve omitted specific plot details in the review.
Being familiar with Rakontur’s M.O. and work from my time on Miami Beach, I had previously tagged their HBO show pitch as “the antithesis of Miami Vice.” So, it was no surprise to see the opening credits in the script described as such. Verbatim. But while the show’s oddly subdued credits might fit this “antithesis” (old farts playing shuffleboard, an idyllic underdeveloped Miami Beach circa ‘79) , the pilot is not as leery of Don Johnson’s white blazers and Michael Mann’s kooky multiculti derelicts and crabs as I surmised. Recall that the first season of Miami Vice didn’t drip with Art Deco camp under Mann’s watch: the action exuded unprecedented cinematic flash and all of Miami was game, not just Miami Beach beauty. New York City figured into Vice’s early storyline, as it does here. Everything in Cocaine Cowboys is similarly bigger-than-life but far seedier.
Cowboys‘ opening scenes–a hasty drug deal at sea set aboard a 150-foot vessel that’s quietly sinking under the careless supervision of incredibly stoned, hard partying Rasta thugs–conjures the same crotch-grabbing gusto and hyper-imagery on display in Mr. Bay’s Bad Boys II. The similarity is blatant, even. We’re talking requisite Miami bimbos jumping off a nearby sailboat after its comically set ablaze by a flare fired by an addled rudeboy named Chicken. Think swooping Bay-mentored aerial views of hot-boobs-overboard. Will HBO execs desire this sort of acronym? After reading the script a few times, I’d bet that the sought-after demographics would get sucked in quickly…and cocaine use would probably get a nice boost nationwide. Note: nothing in the script came off like Billy Walsh’s Medellin– thankfully–but Billy Walsh would definitely set his DVR.
Continue reading the script review of the Cocaine Cowboys pilot for HBO…
Discuss: Would you like to see a new HBO show from Bay, Bruckheimer and Rakontur about the ’80s cocaine trade and culture in Miami, Florida?
What follows after the opener is a dizzying string of introductions to countless shady-as-all-hell characters; serviceably corrupt human synapses fast-connecting to fates (predictable ones?) steered by the era’s incoming cocaine boom and a certain ruthless, wealthy Colombian drug maven, who’s arrived to neuter Miami’s Cuban middlemen. Unlike current drug-hustling shows like Weeds or AMC’s Breaking Bad, the latter of which had one of the more intense, madcap debut episodes in recent memory, Cocaine Cowboys‘ pilot is a slower burn a la Elmore Leonard’s 1983 Miami caper, Stick, by way of Blow’s horny, everyone nose energy. There’s not a signature line (or line) or act of violence here to make your id dance like a California Raisin; but the scale of Corbin and Cypkin’s sandbox is massive; their research extensive, sober, post-ironic. You can tell they’re entrenched in the pilot’s setting and lifestyle, and that’s half the battle when making a show like this.
Not a sole character in the pilot possesses a sympathetic moral center; you don’t fall for any of these people and I wouldn’t expect to in future episodes, whether it’s the charming young-blood opportunist from New York (Carlos) or the insecure, conning Jewish Miami real estate agent (Sam) with the evil, comely Latin wife (my least fave character). Unlike Breaking Bad or Weeds, these characters get into the drug game because it’s who they are, who they know or what they deserve. Moralizing caveats are out the window and if they hit the average Joe back there doing the speed limit, so what.
On one hand, that’s, um, bad, but on the pinkie-ringed other, omnipresent vice at a humid 99 degrees might be refreshing. These are all restless, hungry, compromising characters–attributes shared with the real life men and women in the documentary (a few of them are very loosely adapted here)–the kind you love to hate. The dealers’ alarming casualness to illegal activity and the deadly stakes involved, their foreign born capacities for bloodshed remain intact, just like in the doc. Just like in real life. But there’s a winking intellect missing early on from several of the dozen or so players that made the real people, namely the white drug traffickers Jon Roberts and Mickey Munday, seem so intriguing and complex. Those guys could have gone straight and made a killing, but the kicks, obscene wealth and rebellion made their souls’ smile. We don’t meet one cop, apparent narc or “good guy” in the script. Raging “Cocaine Godmother” Griselda Blanco, or a composite thereof, does not appear either, but I’m guessing she will. A certain hell is simmering, filled with a carnage stew that HBO has never served to its viewers.
Like Miami Vice, Cocaine Cowboys teases you with pro-crime sex appeal–all of the females (and several men) herein are portrayed as conniving hotties–and tons of atmosphere. Ooh, the setting. Any of these characters could catch a nasty head-shot (and one does in macabre QT fashion) and you wouldn’t care (you might cheer), but a spot-on recreation of gritty ’80s-era Miami, complete with Tab (!), fabled sniff spots like The Forge (still around), and indestructible Everglades trailer parks would bring me and many others back for more. It’s a great hook. This is where HBO is a must: the budget for this show is no joke. Add a generous amount of Spanish dialogue, debauched nudity and drug use (club restroom stalls, natch) and, sans Showtime or a brief stay at The Setai, I don’t see this happening elsewhere.
The two most appealing characters both seem to be loosely based off the doc’s real life drug runner/pilot, the enviously named Mickey Munday; they are two white guys (Darryl and Wayne) lured into transporting coke by personal aircraft by the Colombos (weed is so abundant in the MIA it’s washing up on shore, a colorful highlight). What’s slightly odd is that the aforementioned Carlos, the Colombian based in New York, shares more in common with the doc’s other standout trafficker and partner of Munday, Jon Roberts (they’re both vets, sly, affable, NY backgrounds), than do Darryl or Wayne. For those of you curious about the adaptive nature of the show, this seems like a good example of what to expect.
With ethnic rivalries brewing over cups of cafe con leche on Calle Ocho, Darryl and Wayne are intriguing Caucasian outsiders, proud of it, and looking to cooly cash in on their situation. Unlike The Sopranos, the characters here wear their agendas around their necks like “gaudy Krugerrands.”Double-crosses are like a drug to them, like a second language. But this obviousness could work. And at a time when so many shows (and GTA) revolve around the prism of a major, conflicted anti-hero, the core lifelong, complicit friendship between Darryl and Wayne is unique, promising, anti-P.C. and entertainingly carbonated. Also, racial stereotypes are a recurring punching bag in the script. Everyone takes a hit. Controversy awaits.
Corben and Cypkin are not preoccupied with creating a spiritual springboard via a heightened crime drama or with delivering hard-won metaphors. Nor do they level their script’s hedonistic buzz with convenient psychologist-types or gals with hearts of gold; they are laying an elaborate blackmarket framework on which to unapologetically show viewers how Miami came to be *Miami*; in contrast, Miami Vice crashed the city’s party and famously stamped “Hollywood approved” in neon. I’m not sure another television show has ever aimed for such a palpable, self-fulfilling goal, but I do know that Miami would welcome it (unlike other cities) and so would current pop culture (as would the sad, downsizing, dying Miami Herald). Rakontur clearly desires to bask in Miami headlines of all kinds. It’s endearing with a dash of WTF.
Ostensibly, with a high profile HBO series, Rakontur is looking to monopolize and emphasize the on-screen history of Miami for years to come; their’s is a smart business strategy lacking any formidable, organized local competition. Pop culture doesn’t need this show, per se, but I wouldn’t underestimate or devalue the “want” either, especially when Michael Bay, boats, broads and a sure to be talented cast are involved. Does HBO want a blatantly populist time-bomb rather than the usual dazzling critical darling and semi-sleeper? We’ll find out. I want to see it, even if the script didn’t shock or stun me like I expected. Even if Richard Price (The Wire) is Jenga to Corben and Cypkin’s stylish jacks.
The one thing you learn from the original doc is that the game was worth it for many of those involved; if you could handle it and you thought human life expendable, the fun was as real and surreal as the death tolls. “The Hong Kong of the Western World.” The fictional version of Cocaine Cowboys would offer three vicarious vacations at once—epic TV, nascent but scenic Miami, the Me Decade—with enough contemporary, provocative “realism” and high production value to draw comparisons to the best dramatic series around. Also looming is a feature film adaptation with Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg attached. Which will _ _ _ _ first?
Script Review: 7/10
Britney Spears’ Mothering: “Normal”
Britney Spears’ Mothering: “Normal”
Ever since she hauled off and shaved her head, we’ve all thought Britney Spears was a little kooky. But according to a supervising monitor assigned to accompany the “Gimme More” singer to her visits with her children, she’s a suitable mother.
The child services worker reported seeing nothing alarming, and said that Brit’s “interactions at home contain nothing abnormal.” The only observation that sounds a bit out of the ordinary was that “Britney goes to her room to change clothes a lot.”
And according to K-Fed’s attorney,Mark Vincent Kaplan, the “Toxic” singer has problems that are more “psychologically rooted” than anything else. In other words, she’s not right in the head, according to Kaplan.
But she’s off to a great start in the realm of proving that she’s not a total wackjob. After all, Brit has passed two drug tests, and obtained a proper driver’s license. Not too shabby!