Jimmy's Juke Joint

Some Brief Emmy Highlights

If you read my post from a couple of days ago, you'll see that some of the Emmy winners I hoped for did indeed win. Others, got robbed I tell ya! Just a few highlights.

• Jimmy Fallon was fun as host. The opening number was funny and musical! As were a lot of his presentations. 
• I skimmed through the pre-show coverage from both E! and NBC. Ryan Seacrest & Giulana Rancic were cool. I understand that they have to ask "What are you wearing?" but it's really annoying. What normal viewer is watching and says, "Oh, that's a Versace original? I'll have to go buy that tomorrow for $50,000!" NBC pre-show was abhorrent. I don't get why Billy Bush is even allowed to speak. And the other guy they had doing interviews (name escapes me)...about as bad as Kathy Ireland was at the Oscars.  And a big MISS to NBC's pre-show as they had a "Hit/Miss" segment near the end of it praising (Hit!) and dissing (Miss!) what people were wearing. Isn't that supposed to be for the next day? Lame. 
• To my surprise, my bud John Viener (former producer on Family Guy and now current producer on The Cleveland Show), was the "producer" guy in the Modern Family skit early on . 
• It was nice to see the awards go unconventional with many of the winners. 
• Very happy for Jim Parsons ("Sheldon" on The Big Bang Theory) winning best actor in a comedy series. Same goes for Modern Family winning best comedy.
• Boo that my good buddy Michael Emerson ("Ben Linus" on Lost) lost out on best supporting actor in a drama. To be fair, he won it last year though. I noticed that Patrick Stewart was sitting behind him and am anxious to hear if they had a conversation. I really wanted Connie Britton to win for Friday Night Lights. Same goes for Conan O'Brien. 
• My friend Carrie Preston ("Arlene Fowler" on True Blood) looked beautiful! She and hubby Michael Emerson looked great together and I was excited to see my pals all up on the red carpet! 
• The show seemed to move along well. That could be because I fast forwarded through a lot of speeches. (I DVRed the show and watched when I got home later.)
• I'll leave you with my favorite ladies of the red carpet. Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) and Sofia Vergara (Modern Family). They have are great assets for their respective shows. 

  

Emmy Kimmel

The Jimmy Kimmel faux Barbara Walters pre-Emmy Awards special was pretty hilarious. Even the boring Michael Phelps was funny with Kimmel's help. Tracy Morgan had me peeing my pants. And the musical interlude with my future ex-girlfriend Salma Hayek was quite funny too. Mostly because it came out of nowhere and over the fact that she agreed to do it. Check it:

As for The Emmy's themselves? Lame. (Lowest rating in years, I've read). 5 reality guest hosts sucked ass. My boy Michael Emerson got robbed of his Emmy. Josh Groban's horrendous attempt at a theme song medley. A few funny moments like with Ricky Gervais, Don Rickles and....hmmm...yeah, that was about it.

Maybe next year have Kimmel host the awards and bring Adam Carolla with him. They could turn it into a Man Show reunion. At least it would be better ratings! And hey....beer!

Hey! I know you!

Okay, we all know that I'm a big name dropper. I've got friends in TV shows, film, etc. But, I'm not talking about those. Lately, I've noticed old friends popping up in commercials. My friend, Matt, is in some new car commercial or something. He was "Berger" and I was "Woof" in the 30th anniversary production of Hair that we did many moons ago. I'm watching and as he's talking, suddenly it hits me, "Hey! I know you!"

And there's a new Verizon commercial with a girl I used to work with back in the day. Mary Ann did stand up and sketch work and I used to catch her on those lame VH1 shows where comedians pop up and comment. In this particular commercial, she plays a girl at a baby shower who keeps watching games on her phone. She gets interviewed outside like she just played a ball game. As I'm watching, I had to double take. "Hey! I know you!"

And a friend of a friend, Sarah. This one caught me way off guard. She's a dancing Kleenex box. Yep, I said it. "Hey! I know you!" And then suddenly had to blow my nose.

It's always fun to catch old friends or new acquaintances on the tube. Glad to see many of them finding success. Sure, I left the biz a long time ago and have no bitterness. Just not my thing any more. And while I love making fun of friends who I joke with about "still trying to live the dream", it's nice to see some that succeed.

Now, if only that one crazy ex of mine would show up on one of those late night Girls Gone Wild commercials. She'd be making out with some girl, flashing her boobs and falling down drunk and I would gleefully shout at the TV, "Hey! I know you!"

And then probably order the DVD.

Battlestar Galactica: Razor

Frak me! Did you see that? Yes, I know, many of you got to go to the special screening a couple of weeks ago. I had to work, so I had to wait. And wow. Was that worth the wait.

If you don't watch Battlestar Galactica, then you wont care about this. And if you're not watching Battlestar Galactica...WHAT THE FRAK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!!! It's the best damn show on TV, so get over your fear of sci-fi and watch it!

Battlestar Galactica: Razor is a special 2 hour episode dealing with a whole other story in the BSG (that's what us cool kids call it) universe.

Oh yes...there will be SPOILERS!

Razor tells the tale of what happened to that other battlestar after the Cylon attack. The Battlestar Pegasus. Admiral Cain and her crew have just docked for R & R. Meanwhile, a new officer has boarded. Lt. Kendra Shaw. She gets off to a rocky start with the Admiral and is soon thrown into it all with everyone else. The Cylons attack! We find that Cain takes a desperate measure in doing a blind FTL (faster than light) jump to escape. Luckily, they don't land in a sun. Now, what is to happen?

With Galactica, we know all of what's happened and how they reacted. Survival of the human race. Pegasus takes a different approach. Revenge.

We jump back and forth from after the initial attack to 10 months later when Apollo is in command of Pegasus. He meets this hard edged officer, Shaw. He makes her his X.O. We learn through the scenes from after the attack, how she became that way. She witnesses Cain being a cold, heartless leader. Willing to sacrifice her own men just to get revenge. Whether to just survive or embrace Cain's mission, Shaw slowly is turned to this way of thinking. As we learn later when it's revealed she did some cold blooded killing herself.

Meanwhile, in the somewhat present, Lee is ordered by his father, Admiral Adama, to do a search and rescue. Which turns into a full on battle with an old group of Cylons that broke off from the new group. One thing leads to another, a trap is sprung, and Starbuck, Shaw and others are trapped aboard a Cylon ship. They are fighting their way out and hoping for a rescue ship. They witness how the Cylons were experimenting on humans firsthand. Which we learned earlier in a flashback featuring a young Adama where he witnessed the same atrocity. The rescue ship comes, and a gravely injured Shaw stays behind so she can detonate a nuke manually. She stumbles across a Cylon "god" who reveals to her some interesting info about Starbuck.

Epilogue and...damn! What a frakkin' good episode! It wasn't just some throwaway thing to sate the fans. It had meaning and depth and mattered to the story. It reminded me of just how good this show is. And saddens me more that season 4 (the last season!) got pushed back 'til April. And saddens me even further that the writer's strike may not allow the season to end. So, we'll get stuck with no ending! What the frak?!!!

Positive thoughts, kids.

Razor proves that great storytelling can be done in any genre and BSG just keeps on doing it. I was on the edge of my seat at many moments and I literally yelled at the TV a couple of times. "HOLY SHIT!" was heard throughout the apartment! And, I know she was kind of a cold bitch, but why am I suddenly in love with Kendra Shaw? Too bad she died with that nuke because I'd love to see her back. Then again, there's possibilities for anything in the BSG world. But, I think she's done for. I'll have to love from afar. I guess they couldn't have 2 major Asian female characters on there. People would have gotten confused even more because, well...you know....we all look alike.

It's coming out on DVD on Dec. 4th. Go get it. And as I said, if you haven't seen any BSG, go buy the mini-series, and the first 3 seasons and then this special episode. And then....FRAKKIN THANK ME FOR IT, MOTHERFRAKKER! (And you'll finally get all of the "fraks").

More Fall TV Season Goodness

I missed a couple of shows when they first came out and caught them in re-runs or online. Some great returnees as well:

Chuck. A fun spy comedy involving a normal and geeky guy who suddenly has all of the government's secrets downloaded into his brain. 2 rival secret agents must watch over him. It's a really fun and intriguing idea delivered with a wink of the eye. Mondays on NBC.

The Big Bang Theory. A silly and somewhat preposterous comedy involving a bunch of nerds and a hot girl. Still, the pilot had me laughing out loud quite a bit when there were arguments about Superman and other comic book and sci-fi things. If you can deal with a simple plot and stereotyping of nerds, then tune in! Mondays on CBS.

Friday Night Lights. One of the best dramas on TV returns. Barely survived getting picked up for season 2. Hopefully, it will find a bigger audience. Great stories and some hot girls in it. Mmmm....Lyla Garrity. And, it's now on Friday nights! Fridays on NBC.

The Boondocks. Aaron McGruder's controversial and hilarious animated series returns for it's 2nd season. So damn funny and socially conscious at the same time. It was delayed in it's return, but has come back in full force. According to McGruder, tighter animation and storytelling overall. First episode was hilarious. Soul Plane 2 anyone? Oh yeah. Check it. Mondays on The Cartoon Network. Or adultswim.com.

Let me know what you think or if there is any other new show I'm missing. I hear Journeyman is good. Might have to check it out. There are quite a few shows not to check out. Cavemen. Awful. Moonlight. Bad Angel rip-off. I'm sure there are others. Let's hope the good ones stick around and the bad ones get axed soon.   

New Fall TV Shows

A bunch of shows are already airing and there are some good ones. By the pilot alone, some new shows to watch:

• Pushing Daisies - Shot in a very fantasy style ala Big Fish and Amelie, the story follows Ned, a pie maker. He discovers at a young age that he can bring things back to life but only for 60 seconds. If he doesn't touch them again to return them to death, then someone else nearby will die instead. A detective discovers this and Ned soon starts assisting in cases. Things take a turn when he brings back his childhood sweetheart and refuses to touch her again. She joins in on the investigative fun! I've seen the pilot and it rocks. It's deservedly being hyped as the biggest show to watch this season. It premieres Oct. 3rd on ABC.
• Reaper - The pilot just aired on Tuesday on The CW. And it was awesome! Dark, twisted, and hilarious. It involves Sam, who's parents sold his soul to the devil when he was a child. On his 21st birthday, he has to go to work for the devil. Deliciously played by Ray Wise. The devil enlists him to recapture escaped souls from hell. A couple of his friends join in the hunt to hilarious results. It's a great blend of comedy and menace. Quirky and fun. This could be the sleeper hit of the year.
• Bionic Woman - David Eick, producer on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, tries to work the magic again. Though, not succeeding to the level of BSG, it is a nice reinvention of the old series. Jamie Somers gets in an accident and is implanted with "bionics". Government intrigue and a great bad guy in the "original" bionic woman played by Katee Sackhoff. Awesome fight scene in the rain! Thursdays on NBC.

And that's about it. All of the other new shows didn't really get me with their previews. Perhaps I missed a gem by ignoring it. I'll hear about it later and find a way to check out the early episodes if that's the case. Another show that should have been one of my picks, but has now been relegated to mid-season replacement status, is The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Yep. A Terminator TV show. I saw the pilot and it rocked!

Plenty of great returning shows including Heroes, Smallville, Lost, Family Guy, The Office, My Name is Earl, Rules of Engagement, Friday Night Lights and more!

Now quit reading this and get to watching some TV! Screw going outside. Fresh air is so passe'.

The Emmys 07

The 2007 Emmy Awards highlights/lowlights. According to me.

• Family Guy's animated opening. Stewie and Brian do a song and dance about the lameness of TV. Very funny stuff!
• The theater in the round setting. Kind of cool that you could constantly see all over the room. Though, they mostly played to one side.
• Seacrest wasn't bad as the host.
• The camera cutting to a random disco ball shot during Ray Romano's bit. Apparently he said "fucking".
• The beautiful Katherine Heigl corrects the announcer whom had just mispronounced her last name. She's one of this year's nominees, ya idiots. Get it right!
• Kristen Bell sitting with the cast of Heroes!
• Heigl wins her Emmy and camera shows her mouthing "shit" in astonishment.
• Tony Bennett and Christina Aguilera's performance. Meh. For a special that was so hyped and won everything, the performance was lackluster.
• Bennett won almost every category he was up for. I got mad props for Bennett (and Xtina too!), but don't give the award to him because he's old. And why are specials in that "Best Individual Performance In a Variety or Music Program" category anyway? Shows that run 4 or 5 days a week like Letterman and The Colbert Report belong in that category and earn it. Colbert was robbed again!
• The weird and slightly gay The Sopranos tribute. Oh TV execs. How clever of you to have the cast of Jersey Boys sing while scenes from the show played in the background. OH, I GET IT! Jersey Boys. The Sopranos was set in New Jersey. Genius. Way to make one of the best shows in TV history look ridiculous after it's final season.
• The Sopranos cast takes the stage. Well, at least after that idiotic song and dance routine, the HUGE cast comes on stage for a well deserved bow and applause.
• My boy, Michael Emerson, doesn't win for his role as "Benjamin Linus" on Lost in the "Best Supporting Actor in a Drama" category.
• Terry O'Quinn wins the award instead. And then gives a very sweet shout out to Emerson. Saying something like, "and the cast of Lost, represented by the great and glorious Michael Emerson". And the camera gives him some mad love!
• The camera cutting away to the same disco ball shot during Sally Field's speech. She got all ranty about the war and apparently said "God Damn".
• Nerd shows lose out. Heroes doesn't win any of their 8 or 9 nominations. And Battlestar Galactica doesn't win for it's directing or writing nods.
• Lewis Black's bit about TV execs and their lame decisions. Especially the part about advertising for another show on the bottom of the screen during a show you are watching.
• Wayne Brady bringing out Kanye West and Rainn Wilson for a "rap off". Normally, the white guy doing rap funny bit is played out, but this was pretty funny. West seemed to dig it and made fun of himself when he "loses" by saying, "I never win anything".
• The Sopranos and 30 Rock win in the "Best Drama" and "Best Comedy" categories respectively. (Though, I think Alec Baldwin was robbed for his 30 Rock losing nod).
• Best moment of all. Joely Fisher in this dress. Still rocking a hot bad at almost 40! Not a great shot, but the only one I could find. She was spilling out of the dress and even said, "Nothing like a little threat of nipple to keep 'em watching!" I'm sure there will be better shots later in the day. Look for them. And thank me when you do.

Good Golly, Miss Molly & Holly Olly

How the hell did I miss this? The Olly Girls. Holly and Molly. Or Molly and Holly. Honestly? Who cares? (For the record, that's Holly on the left, Molly on the right).

They are the reason people are tuning into the new "reality" show on E! called Sunset Tan. It's supposedly about this chain of tanning salons run by these 2 guys and their employees and the drama that ensues.

But, really...it's about the Olly Girls. Why are they called the Olly Girls? Legend has it that people couldn't figure out which was which since they were always together and have similar names. Holly. Molly. Olly! Genius!

They're roomies, best friends and do everything together. Or so we're led to believe. It's quite clear that they were never originally employees of this salon. They were most likely cast to lure viewers. And, damn! Is it working. Both, especially Holly, have ties to modeling/acting/etc. Both have been involved with Playboy and are often some of the painted ladies at parties. They play the typical ditzy blonde's of L.A. And play it well. But, I secretly think Holly is a genius.

I've only caught a couple of episodes and usually just fast forward to their scenes. Hey, they're funny and hot. What else do you want in "reality" TV?

Seriously, do yourself a favor. Check out their scenes and enjoy. Then...

Turn the lights off, put on some bumpin' hip hop, make yourself comfortable, cover yourself in oil (too much?) and watch it again with the sound off.

You might catch a tan line or 2.

Veronica Mars: Hero

I found this out moments after the news hit. And have been having a nerdgasm ever since. The beautiful and talented Kristen Bell, formerly of Veronica Mars fame (one of the best shows on TV in the past few years), was rumored to be up for a recurring role on Lost. That had my geek pressure rising.

Then, they announced the big news. She turned down the Lost role and instead took a role in Heroes! GEEK PRESSURE OVERLOAD!!!

She'll make her first appearance in October. Playing the role of "Elle", a sexy, mysterious young lady with ties to the supposed death of Peter, H.R.G.'s past and the future of Claire. Her arc will kick off with her committing a serious crime. Though, of course, with Heroes, that is ambiguous at best.

She is a busy girl, so don't expect her character to stay around for more than the scheduled arc. From what I learned, they squeezed her in to fit her schedule. Not theirs. Besides being courted by Lost and Heroes, she had other studios wooing her for various TV and movie projects. Not to mention completed projects waiting to be released like the nerdarama film, Fanboys, and a Judd Apatow comedy.

After all of the teasing of whether or not Veronica Mars was coming back. All of the rewrites and revamps. All of the bullshit. I thought I was going to be sans Bell for awhile. Thank you NBC for snagging her. My peacock thanks your peacock.

For now, I leave you with...

Darth Kristen. 

The Sopranos: Series Finale

S P O I L E R S!!!

Whoa. Did you see that? I think we all had a collective, "What the fuck?" at the ending. Holy shit! Did my cable go out?! Did the DVR stop recording? Did I black out from all of that amaro? Damn it!

Nope. Just series creator (and this episodes director) David Chase going out without a bang. As he often does. I don't mean it sucked. It just literally...ended.

Not much in story lines was tied up. Tony wakes up in the safe house and everyone seems alright. No attack by the New York crew. AJ continues to whine and moan and be a big wuss, but seems to be making progress with his hot little model girlfriend. In a hilarious scene where he parks the SUV in the woods and it immediately catches fire. Just as they were about to have sex. Meadow is running around as if everything is okay. Carmela is worried and wants to get back home. Tony reassures her with, "I'm working on it." Janice is dealing with Bobby's death at the hands of the New York crew. She pays a visit to Uncle Junior who, after pretending to lose his mind, is actually losing his mind. Tony visits him later as well and Junior has a moment of clarity. Nice touch. Meanwhile, there's dissension with the New York crew as boss Phil is upset that Tony has not been whacked yet. He tells his right hand, Butchie, that he is in big trouble for not taking care of business as he asked. Word spreads, and they arrange a sit down with Butchie and Tony and others. But, no Phil. They all agree in so many words that Phil is to be taken down. Which, surprisingly does happen. Phil got whacked in a very simple way. But, the aftermath of it was pretty brutal. Wheel over the head. Ouch. Nice foreshadowing with Phil insisting the little babies say "bye" to him. After the air clears, everyone moves back home. But things aren't okay. Someone in Tony's crew has flipped for the Feds. Tony worries over being indicted.

And the final scene. Chase masterfully crafts this scene full of tension and unease. A simple family gathering at a favorite local place. Tony arrives first. Flips through the table jukebox and picks out Journey's "Don't Stop Believing". A calculated pick, of course. We're shown everyone in the restaurant. Any of them could be a possible killer. Every time the door opens, Tony looks up. Random people enter. Could they be a hitman? Carmela enters first. Small talk. Then, a menacing gentleman enters followed by AJ. More banter. Meanwhile, Meadow has arrived outside and is having trouble parallel parking. We go back and forth from her parking to shots inside. So beautifully shot by Chase. We get both the comedy of Meadow's bad parking job and to the tension inside. At least it's tense from our viewpoint. Is someone gonna whack the whole family? Will Meadow enter just as her family is gunned down? Journey continues to play. Meadow parks and runs across the street to enter. We go back to Tony's point of view as we hear the door open. And just as Steve Perry sings, "Don't Stop..", we see Tony looking at the door and we cut to black. Not fade to black. CUT! Now that's gangsta!

I know cable companies across the nation got a million calls thinking they're cable went out at a pivotal scene. Nope. Chase decided to go out with family. A nice family gathering. Some have already argued that it's cut off because Tony gets whacked by someone since "you never see it coming." I don't buy it. I think we're left to believe that life goes on for Tony. He's in trouble and possibly facing trial/jail time. Things will still happen, but we just wont see it any more. Ambiguous? Yes. And it's supposed to be. Satisfying? Probably not. People are going to be pissed off at this. But, at the same time....genius? Possibly so.

Remember when I said the Journey song wasn't randomly picked. Yeah, check these lyrics.

Working hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
Paying anything to roll the dice
Just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on

The movie, or TV show, will never end. It will go on. But as I said, we wont be privy to it. And I don't think it was a cliffhanger either. As in they'll make a 2 hour movie next year to tie things up. It's done for us. But, the story will go on and on and on and on.

Who knew it would be Steve Perry who whacks Tony Soprano?