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Originally posted at TVHowl.com

You’ve heard of a subway hijacking (at least in the movies)?  Well, in this case, the shoe’s on the other foot: Subway has hijacked “Community.”

Or maybe “hijacked” is too strong a word because this wasn’t exactly a hostile takeover.  It was a business deal, with NBC agreeing to give the omnipresent sandwich chain an omnipresence in tonight’s episode of the Joel McHale sitcom.

It’s one of the most grandiose “product-placement” arrangements ever staged.  This one is so long, and so sustained — establishing a presence, and a plotline, for Subway throughout the entire half-hour — that it actually goes way beyond categorization as a mere “product placement.”

If that’s all it was, maybe we’d see a student or two in the Greendale Community College cafeteria tucking into a couple of foot-longs.  But in this Subway hijacking, the sandwich chain opens a shop smack dab in the middle of the cafeteria.  And the “owner/manager” is a guy who legally changed his name to Subway.

That way, the sandwich shop’s name — already visible on a huge sign stretching across half the cafeteria — can be mentioned in practically every scene.  And when the Subway name isn’t being uttered, various characters are fondly fist-bumping each other  and wryly reciting the two-word slogan for Subway, “Eat fresh.”

While Subway dominates the episode, two other corporations get on-air script mentions as well –  Bed Bath &  Beyond, and Brita, the water filter company.

On the latter “opportunity”: This one was probably inevitable because it plays on a character’s name, Britta, played by Gillian Jacobs.

Subway is emerging this season as a kind of champion of in-show advertising.  In January, three characters in “Hawaii Five-0″ on CBS took a break from police work to have a lengthy conversation about the health benefits of Subway sandwiches.  This Subway scene stopped the episode in its tracks, though it’s reasonable to assume that CBS made a lot of money on it.

And a friend mentioned the other day that Subway also had an in-show presence on Tuesday night’s “Biggest Loser” on NBC (though this kind of sponsorship has long been a staple of unscripted shows — from “Project Runway” to “The Apprentice”).

But this Subway hijacking of “Community” is the most blatant such thing I’ve seen.

When these things arise, the question always is: So what’s wrong with it?

It’s really comes down to this: TV is already overrun by commercials that come in ever-greater quantities and with increased frequency these days.  With so many commercials to deal with already, do we really have to have them within the shows too?  I mean — really?

This episode of “Community” airs at 8 p.m. eastern, Thursday (March 29) on NBC.

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Originally posted at TVHowl.com

Here’s a surprise about this Sunday’s season premiere of “Mad Men” that might spoil the show for you: It’s terrible.

Yes, I know — it’s a shocker.  It might even be the first time any critic anywhere has ever used the word “terrible” to describe “Mad Men,” but there it is.  Sorry.

I hate to spoil a viewing experience for anyone, especially for a show whose return (after more than 18 months away) seems so highly anticipated.  But I can’t help myself: For the first time in my own personal history with this show, stretching back to its glorious beginnings in summer 2007, I was bored stiff watching the two-hour premiere that AMC sent over for preview.

The DVD came with a “letter” from the show’s creator and executive producer, Matthew Weiner, who requested, politely, that critics who view the preview DVD please refrain from revealing various plot points and other developments that might spoil the experience for the show’s fans.  Well, Matt, your secrets are safe with me because nothing much happens in these two hours anyway.

I’ll tell you what happened to me when I was watching it, though:  Some time during a lengthy party sequence (yes, there’s a party in the show — I hope that revelation doesn’t spoil the “experience” for anyone), I realized that I couldn’t have been more bored, and have rarely been so bored, in the process of watching a TV show.  And since it was “Mad Men,” which once upon a time was one of the finest, most electrifying TV series ever produced, this surprising onset of extreme ennui came as a huge shock.

I was so disappointed in what happened to this show that I started contemplating some of the words I might eventually use to describe it in this blogpost.  And besides “terrible” and “boring,” another one came to mind that is even worse: “Disaster.”

Before continuing, here’s a caveat: By all means, watch the two-hour premiere (it starts at 9/8c on Sunday, March 25, on AMC).  And you are more than welcome to enjoy it too.  You just might love it.  But I have a feeling many will not.

And that’s where the word “disaster” comes in.  The last thing an arty TV series like this needs is to come back on the air after an 18-plus-month absence and then bore its core audience to death.  However, that outcome is a distinct possibility.

Why? Well, to delve fully into those reasons might involve revealing details and plot points that Matthew Weiner might not want divulged.  So I’ll try and work around them.

Generally speaking, the whole thing seemed listless, sloppy and predictable.

In the listless department, the aforementioned party is exhibit A.  At just about the time I looked at my watch for the first time ever in the viewing of “Mad Men,” I realized that this party had begun to resemble an old Dutch still-life, with the guests standing or sitting around doing nothing.  At such times, you rely on a literate series such as “Mad Men” to entertain you with dialogue.  That didn’t happen either in this scene or any other in the two-hour show.

The party took place at a new Manhattan apartment apparently purchased between seasons Four and Five by Don Draper (Jon Hamm).  And at this point in this blog post, I was tempted to reveal what happened with Don and his new love, Megan (Jessica Paré).  Remember her?  She was a secretary in the ad agency in Season Four.  As that season came to a close way back on Oct. 17, 2010, she and Don were in love and he asked her to marry him.  (Forgot about that?  That’s understandable since it was 18-1/4 months ago.)  In his letter to critics, Matthew Weiner asked that we not divulge what happened there.  And like the good sport I am, I humbly acquiesce.

Anyway, like so many of the settings in this marathon “Mad Men” fifth-season premiere, Don’s new digs look more like a stage set than a New York apartment.  And so does the office of the ad agency, Sterling Cooper Draper and Pryce.  It’s immaculate, like it’s a display at Ikea or one of those Design Within Reach stores, where they sell knockoffs of iconic mid-century furniture designs.  One thing it doesn’t look like: A Manhattan office where work is performed.

It doesn’t sound like one either.  If you watch the show, try and observe the sound made when people walk around — most notably in the SCDP offices.  Even petite Elisabeth Moss (who plays Peggy Olson) can be heard clomping around like she’s wearing army boots.  That’s because the floors give off a sound like they’re hollow, like a stage set, but not at all like the floors in a Manhattan office building.  They’re usually concrete.

Speaking of architecture, one character refers to an architectural feature in one of the SCDP offices as a “beam” when it is actually a column.  That’s sloppy writing.  Rule of thumb: Beams go across ceilings; columns are those things that go up and down.

And as far as this show’s predictability goes, that can be a problem when a series such as this — one that is about 95 percent character development and about 5 percent plot — has been around for four seasons and is starting its fifth.  We already know so much about the personalities of the principal characters — warts and all — that everything they do in this two-hour premiere seems old hat.

In his “letter” to critics, Matthew Weiner implored us not to divulge plot points that could ruin any surprises for those tuning in on Sunday to herald “Mad Men’s” return.  The thing is: The only surprise I experienced in the season premiere was my own disappointment.

# # #

Forgot all about “Mad Men”?  That’s understandable because it was last seen SO long ago.  Fortunately, my “Mad Men” archives contains all of my recaps from Season Four from way back in 2010 (plus a few other gems).  Read ‘em all right HERE.

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Re-syndicated from XfinityTV.com

“Two and a Half Men” roared back onto CBS Monday night with huge ratings that are the talk of the TV industry.

How huge? Just shy of 28 million viewers – specifically 27.759 million, according to Nielsen overnights. That kind of audience tally for a prime-time scripted sitcom hasn’t been seen for – well, we’re not sure how long, but more on that in a moment.

But first, this: Obviously, this episode of “Two and a Half Men” was highly anticipated, but even CBS must have been shocked by the level of interest the overnight number represented. This episode ushered in the high-rated sitcom’s ninth season and, in just one half-hour, managed to both say farewell to wayward star Charlie Sheen(with a brutal “funeral” send-off) and introduce incoming leading man Ashton Kutcher.
No Tears for Charlie as Ashton Premieres on ‘Men’
Certainly, the publicity preceding this episode was unprecedented. Nor was it planned – it all stemmed from Sheen’s high-profile dismissal last March and then the subsequent casting of Kutcher last May on the eve of CBS’s annual fall-lineup presentation to advertisers in New York. The conclusion? It was Sheen himself who provided the lion’s share of the publicity with his months of tirades against the show and executive producerChuck Lorre, who must be having the last laugh now.

How big is that 27.759 million viewership tally? To put it in perspective, let’s look at a handful of other iconic TV shows. For example, back in the ’90s, “Seinfeld” – one of the most revered shows in the history of television – averaged 21.27 million viewers per episode in its highest-rated season on NBC, its last one in 1997-98. Another legendary NBC sitcom, “Friends,” averaged 24.5 million in its eighth season (2001-02). And that was in an era when viewers had fewer choices than they do today.

More recently, “American Idol” has been TV’s highest-rated series, and the premiere Monday night of “Two and a Half Men” even beat last season’s average for “Idol” – 25.864 million on Wednesdays and 23.798 million on Thursdays.

CBS, of course, has to be ecstatic over the Monday results. Not only does it likely ensure that millions will return next Monday for Episode Two (although how many will return is a big, open question), but it lifted the network’s other shows – most notably “2 Broke Girls,” the new sitcom that premiered after “Men.” Thanks to Ashton Kutcher, “Girls” drew an incredible 19.154 million for its debut – probably ensuring that it, too, will establish itself as another Monday night comedy hit for CBS.

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Re-syndicated from XfinityTV.com

Tommy Gavin didn’t die. Instead, it was Lou, his best friend and perhaps the most likable of all the characters on “Rescue Me.”

A tragedy to end the firefighters’ series run? Yes, but not completely. Though Lou’s death was certainly tragic, leaving all of his surviving colleagues to question their futures in the New York City Fire Department, most of the one-hour series finale seen on FX Wednesday night played like a comedy.

That happened to be this show’s signature: Premiering in July 2004 and ending its run this week as the nation prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, “Rescue Me” at its heart was a drama about one New York firefighter’s reaction to the loss of 343 FDNY brethren in the collapse of the Twin Towers that day in 2001. That’s a weighty subject, to be sure, but since that firefighter, Tommy, was played by comedian Denis Leary (who also co-created, co-wrote and co-produced the series), much of the series was given over to Leary’s dark sense of humor.

Such was the case in the finale Wednesday night titled “Ashes.” The ashes in the title were all that remained of sweet Lou (played to perfection for all seven seasons by John Scurti) after he was killed a week earlier in a warehouse fire (the location recognizable to all who ride the New York subway system’s elevated No. 7 train through Long Island City in Queens). The collapse of that building left the survival of any of the firefighters in question leading into the finale.

And as the final episode began, it seemed as if at least five of them had succumbed. But no — it was a dream conjured by Gavin, a dream in which Lou was seen eulogizing the five men with a rousing speech about the nature of firefighting — a grand piece of screen-writing, by the way, as was much of this final episode.

Certainly, it had been speculated that Tommy himself would be among the dead — a novel and striking way to end a series: Having the all-important main character, who’d been seen in virtually every scene of the show for seven years, get killed off.

But it was Lou who died, and his sendoff was a masterpiece, particularly in the choreography of the sequence in which two windows in Tommy’s SUV were opened simultaneously — because Tommy ordered Franco (Daniel Sunjata) and Black Shawn (Larenz Tate) to toss out their chewing gum — and the sudden cross-ventilation caused Lou’s ashes to suddenly explode out of their box, covering driver, passengers and the entire interior of the vehicle with his earthly remains.

Then, in a perfectly balanced combination of sentiment and black comedy, Tommy poignantly read a letter left to him by Lou (in case of Lou’s death), and then tossed his “ashes” — actually a box of cake mix that Lou’s brethren bought at the 11th hour to stand in for his ashes — over a cliff and into the sea (it looked like Long Island Sound).

Other scenes were laden with comedy too, such as the scene where Tommy, contemplating life as an FDNY retiree, battled with a group of parents at a politically correct playground (filmed in lower Manhattan’s Battery Park City, just steps away the World Trade Center site) over the sharing of kids’ toys in the sandbox. Forget about “Rescue Me” — that was like a scene out of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” only better.

In the end, Tommy didn’t retire, but nor did he assume Lou’s lieutenant’s role, which was his right as senior firefighter in the house. Instead, he let the promotion go to the gung-ho Franco.

As the episode came to a close, Franco and Tommy were seen exhorting a group of new FDNY recruits on the meaning of belonging to a select group of people who run toward and into burning buildings when everyone else is running out and away from them.

In the show’s touching last scene, Tommy was seen behind the wheel of his SUV having a jovial conversation with an old friend seated in the passenger seat — the ghost of Lou.

This episode was one of the best-written episodes of any single TV show seen in years. Our hope for Leary and his team is that they get recognized for it.

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Re-syndicated from XfinityTV.com
In an unusually active August for big news stories, Fox News Channel once again came out on top of the cable news ratings race.

While FNC’s dominance vs. its rivals in cable news – CNN and NBC-owned MSNBC – is not exactly surprise news (since FNC has enjoyed a huge lead over the other guys for so long that we can’t remember when, or if, the situation was ever different), it continues to fascinate us. And the cable news ratings for August – a month that saw so much heated news coverage of stories ranging from the debt crisis to Hurricane Irene – provide us with another opportunity to see where things stand in the tripartite cable competition.

Here are some highlights of the August ratings:

FNC is not only the dominant news channel on cable, it’s one of the most popular channels on cable, period.Its prime-time lineup – consisting on weeknights of “The O’Reilly Factor” (8/7c), “Hannity” (9/8c) and “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” (10/9c) — was the third most-popular in all of cable in August. FNC’s rivals in the evening weren’t even close – CNN’s prime time was ranked 27th; MSNBC’s, 29th. When the “total day” is taken into account, FNC ranked sixth in August among all cable channels. CNN was 24th and MSNBC was 31st.

FNC had the top 13 programs in cable news in August (as it has every other month in recent memory). The Top Five of that 13 were: “O’Reilly,” averaging 2.89 million nightly; “Hannity,” 2.082 million; “Special Report with Bret Baier” (6/5c), 1.992 million; “On the Record,” 1.817 million; and “Fox Report with Shepard Smith” (7/6c), 1.756 million.

Those figures are light years above what the other guys drew in August. In prime time, FNC averaged 1.995 million viewers in August. CNN averaged 723,000 and MSNBC, 714,000. For the “total day,” FNC averaged 1.157 million vs. 539,000 for CNN and 428,000 for MSNBC.

FNC also reported a number of double-digit percentage increases in viewership for a number of its shows compared to August a year ago.

Here’s why we find this so interesting: FNC’s rivals never seem to make headway against this Fox juggernaut, no matter how many stories get posted everyday on the media Web sites about Anderson Cooper and his “Ridiculist” (CNN) or the latest complaints about FNC voiced by the likes of Lawrence O’Donnell, Rachel Maddowand Ed Schultz on MSNBC. In fact, the more the other guys rail about Fox News (in the case of MSNBC) or fail with one new show after another (for example, the short-lived Eliot Spitzer show on CNN), FNC comes out looking like the best-produced, the best-focused and best-managed news channel of all of them. And the ratings – in August or a slew of other months previously – show it.

And there seems little that CNN or MSNBC can do to close the viewership gap because, if there was anything they could do, they would have already done it.

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Originally posted at XfinityTV.com

“TBS’s pricey Conan O’Brien experiment is flopping.”

If Conan O’Brien opens up Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, that blunt sentence will be the first thing he’ll see if he decides to read the Journal’s story about how his show, “Conan,” is faring following its first season, and heading into its second.

How would he deal with such an assessment blared in a high-profile story in one of the world’s most respected newspapers? “What’s helped me immeasurably my entire career is the capacity to tune out all of the noise around me and put my head down,” he once told me in an interview, back in March 2007. “And then,” he said, setting up a punchline, “if I encounter some problem along the way, I’ll deal with that then – mostly by pouting and weeping!”

Well, he’ll have an opportunity to pout and weep if he reads this Journal story. In the wake of the cancellation last week of TBS’s other late-night show, “Lopez Tonight,” the story notes that Conan’s audience has also dropped off steeply – a whopping loss of 60 percent of its viewership since its premiere last fall. Specifically, the show drew an average of 2.4 million viewers nightly in its first month — by this past July, that average was down to 958,000, the story said.

Among cable’s late-night shows, “Conan” – seen weeknights from 11 to midnight (10-11c) – trails time-slot competitors such as “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” (11/10c) and “The Colbert Report” (11:30/10:30c), both on Comedy Central, and, in some weeks “Chelsea Lately” on E! (11/10c), the story reported.

The news is also bad among the younger age groups advertisers crave. The story points out that Conan is losing the battle for viewers 18-49. And that’s a big problem because his appeal among the younger demos was a big reason why TBS hired him in the first place.

With ratings down, the Journal questions whether “Conan” can remain profitable for TBS, particularly because the show is expensive, including Conan’s salary – reportedly more than $12 million a year.

Despite all this, TBS brass is saying they’re sticking with Conan. “Conan personifies the smart funny tone that we want TBS to have,” Turner Entertainment Networks President Steve Koonin told the Journal. “His program is the signature show of our line-up and the centerpiece of our network.”

Still, in cancelling George Lopez, TBS just slashed its commitment to original late-night programming by 50 percent. And now, whether TBS stays in the late-night TV business depends solely on how “Conan” does in Season Two (especially since there’s been no sign the network is eager to develop a new late-night show to replace “Lopez”).

When you recall how millions (or seemingly millions) of Conan’s fans rallied in support of him after he lost “The Tonight Show,” the erosion of his audience on TBS comes somewhat as a surprise.

The question is: Is Conan still hot, or will he soon become another casualty of the ongoing late-night wars?

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