Project Runway gets new producers for Lifetime
A couple of months ago, I interviewed Lifetime president of entertainment Susanne Daniels for TV Week, asking her about Project Runway jumping from Bravo to her network.
“We know for certain that Heidi (Klum) and Tim (Gunn) are returning. We would love to see the judges back, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia…but we’re working on that,” she said.
She went on to say that the show will look and feel very much like it did on Bravo; it will be airing in the same time slot, the same day of the week. And she secured Kors and Garcia, so the four important Project Runway principals all will be in place.
Now comes word that in an effort to keep Project Runway as much a hit on Lifetime as it’s been on Bravo, Lifetime is bringing in the veteran production team Bunim-Murray to take over as showrunners.
Bunim-Murray have done 21 seasons of The Real World, and currently they’re doing two shows of E!, Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Living Lohan.
There’s a sound reason for a change in producers. Magical Elves and the Weinsteins have inked a production deal with NBC Universal, Lifetime’s competitors. The producers tried in vain to stop Lifetime from poaching Project Runway, which meant that Lifetime had to to find new handlers.
Fortunately, they’ve turned to very experienced producers, so I’m thinking that the show is going to look and feel very much the same. If there’s any change, it may be in emphasizing more of the personality clashes between the contestants. That’s always been The Real World formula, and that’s fine with me.
Season five of Project, in which Cristian Soriano emerged as the winner — and a fierce competitor — lacked some of the fireworks from previous seasons. Remember evil Wendy Pepper? Arrogant Jeffrey Sebelia? Smart-ass Jay McCarroll? Wildcard Santino Rice? Those are the kind of characters that make Project Runway more interesting for me because I’m not a fashionista.
Anyway, we won’t be seeing the Lifetime edition until next November. The final Bravo run of Project Runway commences July 16, with Magical Elves and Weinstein at the helm.
HGTV’s new series The Stagers
In this struggling real estate market, HGTV has a new series that will focus on the newest trend in selling homes: home staging. Viewers will get a first-hand look at the work of Canada’s premier home-staging company Dekora. In each episode, audiences will see innovative ideas and techniques that Deroka uses to prep a home for a quick and profitable sale.
In the first episode, we’ll meet a recently-divorced homeowner whose home is terribly dowdy and outdated (think wood paneling … everywhere). Matthew, one of the show’s professional home stagers, transforms the living room into an inviting, modern space.
Of the new show, Michael Dingley, HGTV’s senior vice president of programming, says “The Stagers reveals fascinating and timely solutions that can benefit home sellers in today’s sluggish market. The series illustrates the impact that basic design techniques can make to any home.”
The Stagers will premiere on Sunday July 20th at 10 p.m. ET following Design Star at 9 p.m. ET. The Stagers will then move to its normal time slot on Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET, beginning July 22nd.
Arrested Development: Development Arrested (series finale) - VIDEO
Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of classic TV shows.
Originally aired February 10th, 2006 — I could roll out about a dozen clichés when describing the series finale of Arrested Development, but I’m honestly not sure that saying “this was the end of an era” does it enough justice. For those that own the DVD sets, take a look at the cover for season two. There’s a quote from Entertainment Weekly on it: “Once in the history of time comes a sitcom like Arrested Development.”
Too bad FOX never saw it that way. Not only did they delay the airing of the final four AD episodes, but when it came time to show them, they got bundled together and aired ’em in a row - on a Friday night in the middle of winter! As I’ve said before, it sucks that Emmy wins don’t dictate a show’s future. But we really can’t blame FOX because those Emmys are arguably why we were lucky enough to get three seasons period. Blame the people who watched Skating with Celebrities (AD’s time-slot replacement) instead.
Going into this episode, I remember that before I watched it, I wasn’t expecting greatness. Of course I knew the episode would be good (and it is) but I didn’t expect it to be a huge event. And it wasn’t. In my opinion, it’s one of the unfunniest of AD’s 53 installments. But that isn’t a bad thing. “Development Arrested” rewards the long-time viewer with far more “ah ha!” moments instead of “haha!” moments.
Now that it’s over, there’s endless clamor for a movie and it finally looks like it’s happening. If I can be honest though, I’m not sure it’s the best idea. Great sitcoms don’t always translate well when you go and stretch them out and I fear that Arrested Development could suffer big time. Look at The Office. Phenomenal program and it couldn’t even make one decent hour-long ep. They all got stale. Fast. AD ended on a high note, mainly because it had an actual ending that wrapped things up. At the time, there was all that chatter about Showtime picking up the series but that didn’t cloud Hurwitz’s judgment. He still wrote this as a series finale. There’s no cliff-hanger begging to be answered on another network. I’m just saying, why mess with a good thing?
Of course this episode does have numerous stellar moments. My personal favorite is when we find out that Annyong has actually been gathering evidence against Lucille because she stole the idea for Bluth’s Frozen Bananas from Annyong’s uncle and got him deported. He’d been selling “cold banana in delicious brown taste.” Mmmm!
As a whole, the episode hearkens back to the pilot and other early episodes on numerous occasions. The celebratory cruise, a banner with the word “Pardner” on it, George Michael’s obsession with Maeby, Jim Cramer’s Mad Money upgrade from “Don’t Buy” to “Risky,” and Michael’s flip-flop: apparently breakfast is now more important than family. But as I mentioned earlier, the episode is loaded with “ah ha!” moments and inside jokes. Just look at the Wikipedia page for this episode. It’s an endless list of things that even some of the most die-hard fans wouldn’t catch.
With Lucille in jail, Oscar sticking around and posing as George Sr. (who’s on the boat to Cabo with Michael and George Michael), and Lindsay (or should I say 40 year old Nellie?) no longer a Bluth, it’s hard to say where the show would go next. Buster and G.O.B. are funny often because of what everyone else is doing around them and that’s gone now. This is what I was saying earlier - this episode feels like an ending. Even the final moments, as Maeby pitches her Bluth’s script to Ron Howard, he thinks movie. Not a series. I agree. Even though I’ll see the movie (more than once probably), I’d be much more comfortable enjoying the great memories we already have rather than risking the creation of a bad one. Here’s to hoping that isn’t the case, or Lucille and G.O.B. won’t be the only ones saying, “I’ve made a huge mistake.”
Classic Quotes
“Look at that Buster - you would have lost a hand anyway.” - Michael, after Buster slices off his fake hand with an electric carving knife
“I’ve always pictured him in a lighthouse.” - Tobias, on where he thought G.O.B. lived
“I hope that’s not a crack about my haircolor… lips, forehead, nose, and teeth.” - Lindsay, to Stan Sitwell, after he makes a crack about Lucille’s “natural” children
“I’m just not that into older women.” - Michael, rejecting Lindsay’s marriage proposal once she tells him they aren’t related… and that she’s 40
“I like hot sailors.” - Michael, stopping Tobias before he can say “hot seamen.”
“Kitty likes to scratch.” - G.O.B., after Lindsay slaps him
“…maybe a movie?” - Ron Howard, reacting to Maeby’s pitch
When will we be able to see the first season of Life again?
Or Chuck, or Pushing Daisies, or Private Practice for that matter. With the announcement that FOX was going to offer a marathon of The Sarah Connor Chronicles starting on August 10th I got to wondering about the other freshman shows that made an impression on viewers before the Writers Strike abruptly ended their seasons. Many of these shows haven’t been seen since the end of last year.
For Life, the last original episode to air was December 5th. With the second season premiere slated to air during the first week of October, it will be nearly a year since viewers had a chance to bond with Detectives Charlie Crews and Dani Reese. That’s a bit of a concern when it comes to this show. On the surface Life is a criminal procedural. However, underneath there has been an second story about Charlie’s quest to clear his good name for a murder he didn’t commit. While the first arc of this story was completed in its “season finale,” there is plenty of story to tell.
Question is, who is going to watch Life when it returns? Fans may or may not come back to the show just to see how the story wraps up for Charlie. But, what about new viewers? Will they hook on to a show that already has an underlying story that they need to catch up on? Especially in its new time slot of Friday of 10 pm?
That’s why a rebroadcast of the first season of this, and other freshman shows, is most important for this upcoming season. Due to the Writers Strike, there was much more retention when it came to primetime schedules, which means shows like Private Practice, Chuck and Pushing Daisies were given second chances to prove themselves. If the networks don’t promote these shows by airing their first seasons ahead of time how will they be able to make any headway with their fans and new viewers?
Sure, you could argue that viewers could go online to watch these shows to get some idea about characters and plot. However, the image they would get of some shows would be incomplete. Take Chuck, for example. Doing a search on Hulu, this show only has three episodes available for viewing — all of them from the beginning of the series. As the tone of the show changed from those first few episodes viewers may not be able to get a feel for what the new season will be like. Then, there’s the intimacy issue of watching these shows online. While Hulu offers all 11 episodes of Life’s first season on their site, there are still viewers who would rather watch the show in the comfort of their living rooms rather than on their laptops.
Despite the opinions of some experts, television is still very important when it comes to the popularity and life of primetime shows. By airing the freshman seasons of these programs the networks have a chance of bringing in both the advertisers and the fans for the new season. By not airing these shows sometime during the summer, the networks run the risk of losing the fans they already have and filling empty spots that, due to the Writers Strike, they just don’t have the material for.