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Sarah Silverman: best comedy actress?

Posted by Vogt
at July 2, 2008

Sarah SilvermanAs the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences tries to whittle the submissions down to actual nominees, it’s interesting to take a look at who has made it to the semifinals. It’s not a nomination, but it’s one step away. Today comes word of the finalists for best comedy actress and best supporting drama actor. There are some surprises.

Chief among those for me is Sarah Silverman. I honestly hadn’t even considered her in the running. I’m not much of a fan, but I do like that she is being considered for the simple fact that the base the nominees are drawn from can always use some expansion. And if she is the most surprising inclusion, the most surprising snub just might be Teri Hatcher. Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross, and Felicity Huffman all made the cut, but not Hatcher. Ouch. The rest of the finalists, and the supporting actors from a drama, after the jump.

The complete list of finalists for comedy actress:

If I can only pick one, it would be Anna Friel. The list of supporting actors in a drama doesn’t look quite as controversial, but with so few spots somebody is going to get overlooked. Lost scores two of the coveted spots, and probably the most surprising name missing from the list. Naveen Andrews and Michael Emerson are great, but I’d take Terry O’Quinn over both of them every time. Not so with the academy. The biggest surprise for me here is Bruce Dern on Big Love. The finalists:

I could have gone for Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad, but I’ll take Christian Clemenson for the win, and consider it a long overdue nod to Briscoe County Jr. Members will now watch the submitted episodes for all of the finalists and rank them from 1 to 10 before the two groups are knocked down to a final list of nominees. What do you think? Who doesn’t belong on the list? Who was overlooked?

Celebrity TV
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Toyota: “Big Wheels”

Posted by Vogt
at May 28, 2008

Did you know you could fit 20 big wheels on the top of the all new Toyota Sequoia? Me neither, but apparently it’s a major selling point.

All kidding aside, I like how this commercial appeals to the immature masochistic side of me. I’m talking about the side that would like to get on a big wheel on a steep hill with little to no padding and roll with only a few bails of hay resting between me and imminent death.

That’s seems to be the demographic Toyota is shooting for here, and I’ll be damned if they didn’t nail it.

I loved everything about this commercial and I even went so far as to place bid on a brand new Big Wheel on eBay.

And was it my imagine or did I see Ted Danson near the beginning of this thing?

Celebrity TV
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Terry Farrell Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

Terry Farrell.JPG

Though she has several features and TV movies to her credit, Terry Farrell has thrived primarily as an actress on series television. Born Theresa Lee Farrell Grussendorf in Cedar Rapids, IA, Farrell moved to New York City to become a model. During her several years as a cover girl, she also studied acting and landed her first major role as an actress by playing a model on the short-lived TV series Paper Dolls (1984). While she continued her acting studies, Farrell had a small role in the Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back to School (1986) and appeared in the TV movies Beverly Hills Madam (1986) and The Deliberate Stranger (1986), a well-received docudrama on serial killer Ted Bundy. After she starred in the horror sequel Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), Farrell attracted a following as Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1998). During her five years on Deep Space Nine, Farrell also appeared in the TV adaptation of Danielle Steel’s Star (1993), the B-action movie Red Sun Rising (1994), and the TV thriller Reasons of the Heart (1996). After Deep Space Nine ended, the actress stayed with TV, signing on to play Reggie, the beautiful diner worker and occasionally sharp-tongued foil to Ted Danson’s grumpy doctor on the CBS sitcom Becker (1998).

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Kirstie Alley Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

kirstie_alley.jpg

Sultry and deep voiced, with a wealth of wavy dark hair, Alley has made a name for herself as both a wacky comic and an impressive dramatic actor primarily on the small screen. First known as the beautiful Vulcan Lt. Saavik in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (1982), Alley struggled through a series of unrewarding roles in the early 1980s. In features, she followed “Star Trek” (she lost the role of Saavik in the third feature after reportedly asking for a salary on par with original franchise stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy) with “Champions” (1983), “Blind Date” and “Runaway” (both 1984) and the teen comedy “Summer School” (1987). On TV, she played a trucker in the NBC pilot “Highway Honeys” (1983), a spy in the short-lived “Masquerade” (ABC, 1983) and turned up in such TV-movies as “Prince of Bel-Air” (ABC, 1985) and “Infidelity” (ABC, 1987).

None of these projects knew how to use Alley’s quirky gifts, though she gained a bit of prestige as Gloria Steinem in “A Bunny’s Tale” (ABC, 1985) and in the successful miniseries “North and South” (ABC, 1985) and its 1986 sequel. Her big break came when she became the female lead (after Shelley Long departed) in the long-running hit NBC sitcom “Cheers” in 1987. Alley was cast as neurotic overachiever Rebecca Howe, who despite an attraction to bar owner Sam Malone (Ted Danson), tended to become involved with wealthy powerful men who might improve her status in life. Her small screen success led to movie stardom as a flustered single mom in the surprise 1989 hit, “Look Who’s Talking” and its the less successful sequels “Look Who’s Talking Too” (1990) and “Look Who’s Talking Now” (1993).

Projecting intelligence, vulnerability, and a Lucille Ball-like comedic talent, Alley has carved a niche in TV and films. She finally gained respect as a dramatic actress with her brilliant Emmy-winning performance as “David’s Mother” (CBS, 1994), a slovenly woman raising a mentally-challenged son. Besides appearing on numerous awards and tribute specials, Alley was a voice-over on “Peter and the Wolf” (ABC, 1995), and played another put-upon mother in “Radiant City” (ABC, 1996). She made her bow as executive producer with the ABC drama “Suddenly” (1996), in which she also starred.

Alley’s film career has been rockier. While filming “Cheers”, she moonlighted in such poorly-received features as “Loverboy” (1989), “Madhouse” and “Sibling Rivalry” (both 1990). After the sitcom ended in 1993, Alley returned to features in John Carpenter’s unnecessary remake of “Village of the Damned” (1994) and co-starred with Steve Guttenberg and the Olsen twins in the romantic comedy “It Takes Two” (1995). She has continued to appear in a variety of projects ranging from the revisionist Western “Nevada”, about a town seemingly populated only by women, to Woody Allen’s “Deconstructing Harry” (both 1997), as the title character’s ex-wife. That same year, she co-starred with Tim Allen as a married couple on the run from the IRS who hide out among the Amish in “For Richer or Poorer”. She rounded out the year by returning to series TV as the star of the NBC sitcom “Veronica’s Closet”, a less than stellar effort that nevertheless managed to run for three years. Alley continued to appear in the occasional feature, such as playing a controlling mother of an aspiring beauty queen in the pageant comedy “Drop Dead Gorgeous” (1999) and frequently headlined high profile telepics and miniseries including “The Last Don” (1998), the Marilyn Monroe mini “Blonde” (2001), “Salem Witch Trials” (2002) and the particularly well-acted “Profoundly Normal” (2003), opposite Delroy Lindo, about the true-life romance between a mentally challenged couple.

The actress also remained in the public eye as the pitchwoman in a series of commercials for the home furnishing company Pier 1 from 2001-2003, although media attention began to focus on how the former sex symbol’s once jaw-dropping figure had begun to expand in middle age–she later revealed she weighed as much as 219 lbs. Always an outspoken actress with a button-pushing sense of humor, Alley played off the tabloid obsession with her weight by agreeing to star in the Showtime series “Fat Actress” (2005 - ), playing a comedic interpretation of herself as a once-successful actress struggling in Hollywood after packing on extra pounds. As a result, Alley–who revealed that her weight was strictly moniored during her sit-com days, and brashly confronted talk show host Jay Leno for his fat jokes at her expense–also became a spokeswoman for the weight loss system Jenny Craig and began dramatically shedding her excess weight.

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