Molly Shannon’s latest role isn’t an independent movie, or even a self referential commercial, it’s as spokesperson for Life Insurance Awareness Month…. Shannon will be featured in videos all month, ’sharing her story of loss and financial struggle in the hopes of getting more Americans to take stock of their life insurance needs.’ I guess what they say about insurance companies having deep pockets is true……

Shannon was last seen in Year of the Dog, and just finished filming a Lifetime movie of the week titled More of Me.

Popularity: 78% [?]

I’m sorry, this just creeps me out. Joey Buttafuoco and Amy Fisher are attempting to rekindle their ‘romance’ via a new reality show. Apparently they’ve both left their spouses and are looking for a second chance at 15 minutes of fame.

It’s pathetic that for every great show like 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights, there’s a producer attempting to get crap like this on the air. Rarely does a story actually make me queasy, but this one certainly did.

Source: The Post Chronicle

Popularity: 18% [?]

Wow….just wow. Every celebrity has that shameful commercial that haunts them forever. For Evangeline Lilly it’s the Vancouver Livelinks ad, but for Helen Mirren it’s much much worse:

Popularity: 9% [?]

Wait for it folks….this is me eating crow.  Maybe it’s just that I love Sorkin doing Christmas but I thought tonight’s Studio 60 was a step short of delightful.  I didn’t even care about the unfunny sketches.  Decent amount of relationship progress tonight between all the usual suspects.  All in all a quality episode.  No super detailed recap tonight due to school.

Short recap below:
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Popularity: 18% [?]

Once again Studio 60 rebounds from 3 decent episodes with another boring preachy one. I really don’t know what to think about this show anymore. Just when I think it’s horrible they have a good episode and then just when I start to have faith they have a bad episode.

I honestly can’t think of a single highlight tonight aside from Lucy Davis. I applaud the Studio 60 crew for giving her an actual character rather than a cameo like the Ugly Betty folks did.

But who am I kidding, you don’t want to hear me bitch about the show.  Odds are you found this blog by searching Studio 60 so without further ado here’s the full recap of The Option Period:
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Popularity: 19% [?]

Variety announced today that Lauren Graham is going to Executive Producer a group of shows with her production company Good Game Entertainment. Two shows have apparently already been picked up.

As great as this is for Graham I wonder what it means for Gilmore Girls. It’s no secret that Graham has wanted more control on the show in recent years and rumours have been flying that in order to get her back for an 8th season the CW would offer her a producer credit. Now that she’s got a full slate of shows in active development I wonder what the odds of her returning to Gilmore Girls will be.  She’s working with the WB which produces Gilmore so maybe she’ll stay with the show.

While I understand the show is not what it once was, it still deserves an 8th season to reunite Luke and Lorelai and have one final season that doesn’t focus on annoying relationships.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Picture this folks: you’re dating a guy, you end up telling him lots of stories about your life. You break up with him and the next thing you know he’s modeled a character in a highly publicized series after you. And by modeled I mean carbon copied. That’s what happened to Kristin Chenoweth when Aaron Sorkin decided he wanted a ‘cool Christian’ in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

An article in Saturday’s Toronto Star asked Chenowith how she felt about her life ending up on tv. She’s surprisingly cool about it and continues to support Sorkin and the show. Honestly if I were in her position I’d be a little bitter, and by a little I mean I’d want to kill him. Even though Harriet is a great character that is just such a breach of trust.

Other interesting tidbits in the article, Chenoweth used to do Nancy Grace impressions at home with Sorkin…Harriet’s best impression so far has been Nancy Grace.

The first time I ever saw Chenoweth was as a Jr. Agent on Frasier. I wasn’t exposed to Broadway as a child so I knew little about her singing abilities until Wicked became popular. Then she ended up on The West Wing, one of my favourite shows of the past decade.

Chenoweth goes against the modern stereotypes of Christianity and she makes her opinions clear. She seems like a genuinely cool person, especially when it comes to religion.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Before tonight I was seriously considering dropping Studio 60 from my schedule. It started off great but then disspointed me, continuously. I now think that the show was just taking time to hit its stride. They had to feel things out. Nowhere in this episode was a comedy sketch. That could not make me happier.

Thoroughly entertaining hour of TV. It built on the relationship between Jordan and Harriet and gave Cal actual scenes to act in(yay!). Nate Cordry showed some real acting chops and Lauren Graham had actual dialogue, that was funny. If only I could say that about Gilmore Girls.

This episode was enough to encourage me not to drop the show. It’s not perfect yet but I’m convinced it’s almost there. No live-blog next week as NBC is replacing Studio 60 with Friday Night Lights for a one week trial.

Full episode recap below
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Popularity: 13% [?]

We know that Studio 60 has a 13 episode order and the assumption is that NBC will want to air all those episodes to recoup as much money as possible.  They overpaid for the show, so they might as well make lemonade out of lemons.  At this point I’m willing to predict that there’s no way in hell Studio is gonna get a back 9 order.  It looks like the network is slowly making plans to get rid of it.

I’m not surprised considering TvSquad reported today that Kevin O’Reilly, head of NBC’s entertainment division may be on his way out.  O’Reilly bought Studio 60 during a bidding war with CBS.  His slate of high style, expensive programming has proved unsuccessful this year, aside from Heroes.  NBC is obviously trying to save Friday Night Lights, their critical darling, but it looks like they’re throwing Sorkin to the side to do so.

Seems like a smart move on NBC’s behalf.  Studio 60 has been nothing short of a disaster for them.

Popularity: 13% [?]

First let me say, I’m a big fan. You’re a great writer..really you are. But I feel like you’ve gone too far now.

I loved West Wing. For 7 years I didn’t miss an episode. It was the smart, snarky and had Josh and Donna. Really what’s not to love? That love blinded me. I let things go too easily. Like your comment on the Ontario/Vermont border.

You know what else I let go? Your constant reuse of names. Most people didn’t see Sports Night so they didn’t realize what you were doing. At first I thought it was cute, then it just became annoying. But it was never something worth complaining about, until now.

I like Harriet Hayes, I really do. She’s one of the bright spots on Studio 60 for me. Smart, sexy and funny to boot. But I feel like you need to stop, because Harriet Hayes is no Ainsley Hayes.

It’s hard to describe the awesomeness that was Ainsley. A Conservative surrounded by Democrats. She was smart, sexy, sassy and intelligent when it came to her faith. Wait, suddenly that sounds familiar. I wonder why? Ainsley was one of my top 5 West Wing characters, please don’t rip her off any longer. Yes, I realize Harriet is ripped for your relationship with Kristen Chenowith, but still, it’s no excuse.

Go open a baby book and pick some new names. I promise, it won’t hurt. Just please stop it before Cliff Lyman shows up at Studio 60. My little Wingnut heart wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Sincerely,
TVDork

PS. All will be forgive if you make Harriet and Ainsley cousins and bring Emily Proctor back to say your beautiful words…and to eat lots of food. And no those 3 scenes at Leo’s funeral don’t count.

Popularity: 9% [?]