PROGRAMMING NOTES:
… Syfy has renewed superhero drama Alphas for a second season. [EW]
… ABC bought a pitch for The Seven Wonders, a "globetrotting adventure" based on the Jack West, Jr. book series by Matthew Reilly. [Deadline]
… Jimmy Kimmel opened his show on Tuesday with a 20-minute tribute to his dearly deceased Uncle Frank. Get ready: Here come the waterworks. [EW]
… Meryl Streep, Yo-Yo Ma, and Neil Diamond (yes!) are among the recipients of the 2011 Kennedy Center Honors. Also recognized: Saxophonist Sonny Rollins and singer Barbara Cook. The ceremony airs December 27 on CBS. [EW]
CASTING NEWS:
… CHiPs star Robert Pine will guest-star as a former cult leader on Parks and Recreation. [TVLine]
… Fringe's Observer, aka actor Michael Cerveris, is on loan to another J.J. Abrams TV property: He'll guest-star on an episode of Person of Interest, the upcoming new CBS drama starring Lost's Michael Emerson. [TVLine]
… Skyler Day, last seen in TeenNick's e, will play a love interest to Miles Heizer's Drew in Parenthood's third season. [TVLine]
… William Shatner will play a "very drunk driver" on ABC's Rookie Blue, which is wrapping up its third season. [TVLine]
… JoAnna Garcia, best known from her role on Reba, will play a sexy lady on Royal Pains. [TVLine]
… Bachelor and Bachelorette host/stooge Chris Harrison will host the Miss America pageant for the next two years. [CBS News]
… Eric Winter, who's served stints on Days of Our Lives, Brothers & Sisters, and The Mentalist, has joined the cast of ABC's G.C.B.* [Deadline]
*formerly Good Christian Belles**
**formerly Good Christian Bitches
TIDBITS & LEFTOVERS:
… The Parents Television Council is upset that a mother dressed up her young daughter as He-Man for a kiddie pageant. [THR]
… Russell Armstrong had no drugs or alcohol in his system when he died, according to the LA County Coroner's office, which has ruled his death a suicide. His family, however, is now saying it's murder. [EW, TMZ]
… It's been a rough few days for Chaz Bono, who's been the butt of bigoted complaints over his inclusion in the cast of ABC's Dancing with the Stars. (Really? Transgenderism is something to boycott?) And his famous mom, Cher, has said via publicist that she won't show up to tapings because she doesn't want to "steal his spotlight." Whatever, Cher. Get your ass over there and represent. [Reuters]
… Aziz Ansari is the "funniest man under 30," says Aziz Ansari. But so does Rolling Stone, which the Parks and Recreation actor excerpts here. [azizisbored]
… Here is a picture of Justin Chambers with his shirt off from the upcoming season of Grey's Anatomy. McDoughy! (But also McCutie.) [EW]
Great news! I love the show Alphas. One actually has to be intelligent to understand the scientific and medical references. Plus, I like a show that makes me think. No ridiculous ghost stories or ghost hunts on this show either.
I don't understand what you people mean by stand alone episodes; they are serialized. Sure some questions get answered and some plots resolved by the end of any given episode, but not the larger ones. There are so many ongoing storylines I can't name them all but just to start with ; Is the government actually using the team to wipe any alphas they can't control out? What is really going on at Bingham( or whatever the prison asylum is called? )Is the team on the right side? What does this Standish guy want? What does Rosens daughter want? IS THAT ENOUGH SERIALIZATION FOR YA? Seriously?
I am thankful alphas is coming back. Who is that weird kid?
im so happy alphas have been pick up again.i love that show..im not even gone comment on the girl b/c i was alittle shock but i look on the bright side at least shes not wearing a bikinki.sorry bout spelling:)
Oh, its you. Youre the one that likes the new Charlies Angels and Secret Circle. I love Alphas, but I wish you didn't.
Good news everyone!
First new show to really surprise me by being any good since Game of Thrones made me eat my words.
this is great news, love alphas so....awesome
yay love alphas, best new summer show
Glad to see Alphas was renewed.
I like Alphas, but yes Eureka was the best show Syfy has ever had, but cancelling Eureka and renewing Alphas aren't directly linked. i hope Alphas will take on a little more of a serialized turn instead of doing so many standalone episodes. that only works with comedies.
Some of us actually have lives. I watch TV as a recreation, not as some sort of labor, so I appreciate not having to watch every episode to follow what's going on in a particular episode. I'm glad Alphas has been renewed since it's the first show I've watched on that network with any regularity since Battlestar Gallactica. And a big "in your face" to the posters who doubted it run longer than a season.
So your saying that last show you watched on Sy-Fy was a serialized sci-fi drama? Hmmmm....
The fact that you're watching random episodes means you're sitting glued to your TV channel hopping. It actually takes less time to record a show and watch the episodes in order, because you don't end up getting sucked in by random crap. Don't assume that just because we enjoy quality stories we have no lives.
There have been plenty of quality stories told in the course of an hour without weeks of backstory. Maybe I watch random episodes of shows because I sometimes don't get around to watching shows that I tape and sometimes I'm not available to watch something when it comes on (although channel surfing was how I first discovered Doctor Who).
alphas is so good, glad its coming back next year
Renewing Alphas and cancelling Eureka? Syfy is crazy.
Out of all of the original shows SyFy has produced / aired... Alphas had my attention the least. Ignoring the stuff SyFy/SciFi syndicated this is at the bottom of my pile. And this is going back to the 90s.
I'm not saying the show is bad, just that I really didn't enjoy it much.
Yay! Alphas renewal! I continue to know how to pick shows. I've never gotten involved in a show that wasn't renewed for at least one season. My record still stands!
Good news. This is a good show that has gotten better with each episode.
Also does that mean M.Tim Surette will make public excuses for the infamous comments he made a few weeks ago about Summer Glau and her fans?
Oh thats right, Summer Glau had that teeeeny role as Skylar. Thank goodness it wasn't a permanent role. She is the kiss of death to any show. She has no fans. Or else she wouldn't doom shows like she does. She should be glad she gets any work at all.
It is good news that Alphas was renewed. But bad news that I have to put up with another round of your wall of mostly asinine comments plastered on every Alpha article.
Say what you want about me and my comments, the fact is that everyone, including M.Tim Surette, who made unflattering comments looks like idiots now.
if that's all that is bothering them about that abomination then that's just sad
True why renew Alphas when Syfy have a great show Eureka that show Rocksssss
I can't believe they scrap Eureka and keep Alphas when Eureka was pulling in more viewers and had a better rating in that seemingly arbitrary 18-36.97 rating thingy! But I am glad that Alphas got renewed, I like it. I also understand now how Alphas fits into the W13/Eureka universe... The Warehouse agents are Alphas! The new guy is a human lie detector, Pete is a human danger detector and Mika is a human Goddess... er I mean, apparently she is very good at spotting details and patterns (yeah OK that one is a little tenuous), but hey, I've not read any other (better) theories on here (yet).
My understanding is it was a season-issue. That after season 5, contracts state the costs would go up... at least for SyFy. Like SyFy would have to pick up the tab for more stuff as opposed to the studio.
OK, the PTC is upset with the mother. Not her fault that she swims in the VERY shallow end of the gene pool!!! Now let's focus on HOW she got to that point of deciding just how to denegrate her offspring??!! Where's the brain-trust that allowed this trash to air?? What company thought "Yeah, that's the show I want my product to sponsor!!" And finally, WHO said "Oh please, make me a judge of what is so clearly aimed at predators on parade!!!" We need a new award show QUICKLY!!! Chris Hanson's Iconic Little Darlings And Babies Underrated Sexual Exploitation!! Well, that won't fit on the screen so it'll need shortening.....C.H.I.L.D.A.B.U.S.E. !! The top prize is 10-12 yrs trip to Carandiru, Brazil* with all expenses paid, and all the LUPRON we can squeeze into your arm!!!
*Carandiru prison(voted the worst prison in the world with 1/5 inmates suffers from AIDS.)moreless
I like Alphas but I'm still raging over the fact that SG:U got canceled.
I also feel the discontents of the uncertain ship that is sci-fi television. But in the end it's all worth my unwavering devotion to the genre.
I agree.
He-Man? More like Pretty Woman.
ALPHAS!!!! YAY!!!!! :D
Bizarre that this is where they draw the line, I would have gone with the dolly parton costume from last week, but bravo for the PTC. This is the first time they've ever done anything I approve of.
Yeah, I thought the fake butt and boobs were way more disturbing, unless they see this as some sort of very weird cross dressing (not that that he-man thing - the real one I mean, which I had to google, had no idea what it was - looks anything like a man). Anyways, the entire "show" is wrong on so many levels, that one doesn't even know where to start...
@smithinjapan - happy to oblige; why hasn't social services done anything yet? I watched about two minutes of it last time you posted a video on tv.com and the girl looked positively horrified. I can't think of anyone decent who would think this is a show worth the LCD-screen it's broadcasted on.
The PTC is upset about a kid dressing up as He-man? What about all the other life-wrecking things that go on in that show? The picture in the article gives us in the least a very clear outline of how those poor kids are being pimped out by their so called parents.
I'm very happy for Alphas being renewed for a second season. I've enjoyed every episode.
Rookie Blue's finishing up it's second season not third!
Also stoked for Alphas! The show really picked up as it went on!
I really enjoyed the first four episodes of Alphas. The next four were good, but I prefer serialized stories. Alphas has real potential for that. I'll most likely tune in for a second season.
I don't understand you. They are ALL serialized. It would be difficult to even understand one episode without seeing all that went before it. There are constant storylines that are being explored throughout the show. Like for exampleif the government is trying to stop any more alphas from being born, and what is happening in that prison/mental asylum they put the naughty alphas, or even if the team is on the right side.
Don't miss the last episodes of season 1; they will be heavily serialised.
We will learn more about Binghampton and about Dr Rosen secret agenda.
I too am happy about the renewal. Not the greatest show on television by any means, but a pretty decent one. As for the picture of the kid -- someone make a comment that parents should be up in arms and social services clearly isn't watching the show in question, but they SHOULD be -- it's disgusting how parents will dress up their kid.
The outfit looks innocent enough to me. Shouldn't people worry about real problems instead of a slightly tacky costume? Like real child abuse and neglect, and the economy, and the fact that we can't afford any teachers or equipment in our schools to teach kids unless we have the FED print more money which will make the dollar stop being the default currency which will make food prices go up about ten times and so on? No wonder nothing gets done.
Very happy about the renewal of Alphas. Some hit and miss episodes, but overall, I felt it was a pretty strong season.