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New TV Season In 2nd Week
Did anyone watch anything?
Any opinions?
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The New Show Premiering tonight is
'According To Jim' on ABC.
The Season Premiere of 'The West Wing' on NBC.
Fresh episodes of 'The Amazing Race' and 'Wolf Lake' on CBS;
and
'Lost' and 'Law & Order' on NBC;
and
'My Wife & Kids', 'The Drew Carey Show', and 'Whose Line Is It
Anyway' on ABC;
and
'Enterprise' on UPN.
Still looking for opinions on any (or all)!
(Hint, Hint!)
E-Mail Marty
And, Thanks! to all who have responded.
Tonight
'The West Wing'
NBC drama ``The West Wing'' opens its new season on Wednesday with a hurriedly
produced special episode on issues raised by the Sept. 11 attacks on America,
becoming the first of several shows to embrace terrorism themes the networks
initially avoided.
``The West Wing,'' starring Martin Sheen as fictional President Josiah
Bartlet, is the first show to reverse the initial impulse of prime-time dramas
to shy away from anything having to do with the events of Sept. 11.
Since NBC executives last week gave the go-ahead for the special ``West Wing''
segment, series creator Aaron Sorkin and the Emmy-winning show's cast and crew
have raced to put the episode together under a painfully tight production
schedule.
The effort also forced NBC to postpone the series' official season opener by two
weeks, and to air a rerun last week.
Seeking to avoid the appearance of exploiting a tragedy, NBC and the show's
producers have been deliberately vague about the episode, to be titled ``Isaac
and Ishmael.''
NBC has said cast members would introduce the episode out of character at the
outset of the show, which has been written as a stand-alone episode and not part
of the show's serial story line that ended last season with Bartlet deciding
whether to seek a second term after disclosing he suffers from multiple sclerosis.
Churning out a special episode under short deadlines posed considerable
production hurdles for the show, and forced cast members to memorize a lot of
dialogue very quickly. With the final scene shot Monday, producers had only two
days, as opposed to the usual 21, between completion of principal photography
and the broadcast, the Los Angeles Times reported.
West Wing
Weekly Review
from Harper's Magazine
Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor told a New York audience
that "we're likely to experience more restrictions on our personal
freedom than has ever been the case in our country." White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer denounced television personality Bill Maher
for suggesting that firing cruise missiles at targets 2,000 miles away
was perhaps more cowardly that flying a plane into a tall building:
"There are reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what
they say, watch what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like
that; there never is." "Watch what they say," which was captured on
tape, was omitted from the official White House transcript. The White
House retreated from its claim that a threat to Air Force One was
received on September 11 after no record was found of such a call. A
professor at the University of New Mexico was in big trouble for
joking that "anyone who can blow up the Pentagon gets my vote";
university officials were calling for his resignation. Two small-town
journalists were fired for criticizing the President. A consortium of
newspapers including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the
Wall Street Journal decided not to announce the results of its recount
and analysis of 200,000 disputed Florida ballots. It was revealed that
in the days just after September 11 former president George Bush
advised his son to tone down the bellicose rhetoric. Britain was
planning to institute a national ID card, a scheme that has the
support of 85 percent of the population. Lawmakers were concerned that
the Bush Administration was seeking language in its antiterrorism
bills that would enable the laws to be applied against common
criminals.....
( continued at Weekly Review )
--Roger D. Hodge
Hell Is For Gumshoes
by Michael Dare
Michael Dare
Old TV
Bonanza
If you are of a certain age, the theme from the TV show "Bonanza" is, no doubt,
embedded in your brain. But did you know the song has words?
On Sunday, Pax-TV will air the uncut first episode of the famous Western series
that had its debut on Sept. 12, 1959, with the happy Cartwright family singing
the words to the theme. This — after 42 years — is a first.
Bonanza
Update
Sharon Stone
Tests found that Sharon Stone suffered bleeding onto the surface of the brain,
but she'll have to undergo another angiogram to determine whether she had an
aneurysm.
Doctors found the 43-year-old actress had a subarachnoid hemorrhage, or bleeding
into the space between the brain and the middle membrane covering the brain, her
publicist Cindi Berger said Tuesday. She has been hospitalized for the past
several days after suffering from a severe headache.
``I will be getting another angiogram on Friday,'' Stone said in a statement.
``That should be the final determination at which point every part of my anatomy
will have been photographed in detail. At last the mysteries will be resolved.''
The angiogram will determine whether Stone had an aneurysm, which is a weak spot
on a blood vessel that bursts.
``If they didn't find an aneurysm, this bleeding could have come from some other
source,'' said Dr. Ashok Anant, chief of neurosurgery at Maimonedes Medical
Center in New York. ``If they had found an aneurysm, she probably already
would've had surgery.''
``I've been treated with medication,'' Stone told the Chronicle. ``I've been
very, very lucky.''
Sharon Stone
New! Updated!
BartCop Astrology
Check it out at BC Astrology.
"Guitar Greats" is still on hiatus, but, this week, it's a look at 'The Birth of
Aviation', and a relevant USA horoscope courtesy of Marc Penfield.
Very interesting reading!
Baby News
Jodie Foster
From now on, when Jodie Foster refers to her two golden guys, we can no longer
assume she means her pair of Oscars.
That's because the 38-year-old actress-director-producer gave birth Saturday to
son number two, publicist Pat Kingsley confirmed today.
Here are the vital statistics. The baby's name is Kit Foster. Like big brother
Charles, Kit was born in Los Angeles. He weighed in at 6 pounds, 3 ounces.
While the delivery came about a month earlier than Foster had planned, "there is
no reason to raise any red flags--everything was normal," Kingsley says. "Both
[Foster and child] are at home and fine."
As with Charles, who turned three in July, mom is mum on the paternity of the
newborn. When asked in April by New York Post gossip columnist Liz Smith
whether "her donor" was the same man as Charles' father, the fiercely private
Foster replied, "I'm not going to answer that."
She says she plans to raise her kids as single mother. "Just like I was raised
myself," she told Smith.
Jodie Foster
Friar's Roast
Hugh Hefner
Comics Drew Carey, Rob Schneider and Adam Corolla banded together at the Friars
Club annual roast to poke fun at Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Hef's seven
siliconed girlfriends sat front and center, and Carey had the gall to question
the intelligence of Hef's beauteous blonds. "They don't even know we're making
fun of H-E-F and how O-L-D he is," he mocked. Also in the crowd were Kylie Bax,
Howard Stern, Vincent Pastore and Patty Hearst. ...
Hef Roast
Trailer For Thanksgiving
Star Wars: Episode II
In an interview conducted on Skywalker Ranch with George, Empire's Ian Freer
asked the man himself why there wasn't going to be an Episode II trailer on The
Phantom Menace DVD. This was his answer; 'I think the primary reason is we
haven't gotten a trailer for Episode II yet. And we don't have enough shots to
even make a trailer for Episode II yet. Traditionally we always release a
trailer at Thanksgiving. There are always two trailers. There's always one at
Thanksgiving and there's always one in March. And we thought about it, but I
didn't want to delay the DVD.'
Lucas also reveals something rather interesting about how the tousle-haired
moppet we see in Anakin becomes Darth Vader. Talking about how future
generations will view the Star Wars series, Lucas says that if you start with
Star Wars, then '[Vader]'s just the villain, and that's it. But you don't
realise that he's a human being, that he's got problems [you don't realise] that
he could have been saved, that he was tricked and can be resurrected.'
Tricked, huh? Well that's something to get the fans jawing about. You can read
the full interview with George Lucas in the November issue of Empire which is out now.
Empireonline.co.uk
New!
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Don't worry about the HTML, just send text, or rich text, or a Word document, photos, video, whatever you have, and Michele will take care of the rest. Don't hesitate to write with any questions you may have and bring on the recipes!
To check out 'Train Station Chicken', and more (like 'Cranberry Autumn Tea'),
In The Kitchen With BartCop
Odd Music News
Erick Sermon
Rapper Erick Sermon was critically injured when he plunged from a third-story
window, which Paterson police said Tuesday they are investigating as a suicide attempt.
The police account contradicts the story from the artist's record label that
Sermon, 32, was injured in a car crash on a rain-slicked road.
Police said they were called Sept. 25 on a report of an attempted suicide. They
were unable to interview Sermon, who is being treated for head and facial
injuries at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center.
But a woman told police the rapper had been in her apartment. She left briefly
and returned to find him gone and a window open. The woman, whom police did not
identify, said she looked out the window and saw Sermon lying on his back in
the parking lot, bleeding from the head.
Sermon, who lives in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., was listed in fair condition Tuesday.
Biff Warren, a publicist for his label, J Records, initially told The Associated
Press that Sermon was heading home after finishing a video shoot in upstate New
York when he fell asleep at the wheel and ran into a wall.
Another record label publicist, Yusef Gomez, told The Record of Hackensack for
Tuesday's editions that he does not know where the original information came from.
``As far as we knew and what was sent to us, he was in a car accident,'' he said.
Erick Sermon
'Radio' News
Clear Channel Whines
Top U.S. radio broadcaster Clear Channel Communications Inc. said Tuesday that
it lost $45 million to $50 million in radio ad revenues in the wake of the
Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
In August, Clear Channel said that it expected third-quarter cash flow of
73 cents a share, below the Wall Street consensus at the time of 80 cents a share.
The latest was global media powerhouse News Corp. (NCP.AX), which said on
Tuesday morning that it had lost tens of millions of dollars in ad revenues
because of the attacks.
(aw, gee, rupert....so sad you must act like an 'American', and do 'what's right' -
controlling the media can be such a bitch.)
Media companies had already been suffering from a sharp slowdown in ad spending
because of the slowing economy, and industry experts say the attacks have only
exacerbated the problem.
Mays said that Clear Channel's $1 billion buyback program had expired on Oct. 1
and that the company will likely renew the program. Many companies have
instigated buybacks in the wake of the disaster in a bid to prop up their share prices.
clear channel whines
For a refresher on Clear Channel, see bcEnt 9/19/01
(Back when there was a real FCC, where it's paramount duty was to 'provide broadcasting
in the "public interest, convenience and necessity"', an entity like Clear Channel or
even rupert's world would have been against the ownership laws. But, Congress gave
'broadcasters' the airwaves back in '96, and, of course, it wasn't news.)
BartCop TV!
Visit the site at BC TV
The 'Vidiot' is now updating daily!
For an amazing variety of information on an astounding array of tv programs check out
BC TV!
Emmy Awards
This Sunday Night
A workman dismantles the bleachers outside the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles
September 27, 2001.
The Shrine is the site of the 53rd annual Primetime Emmy Awards scheduled for
telecast on October 7.
Event organizers have made several changes to the awards show including
eliminating the bleachers where fans would have been seated, scaling back the
red carpet arrivals area and increasing security at the event.
Emmys
Not A Happy Camper
Richard T. Jones
Richard T. Jones, who plays court services officer Bruce Van Exel on the CBS
legal drama Judging Amy, has filed suit against 20th Century Fox Television to get out of
his contract and quit the show because he's unhappy with the way his character
has been developing over the past two seasons.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the actor accused
producers of reneging on an oral agreement to release him from his contract,
since his role on Judging Amy was going nowhere by the second season.
But when Jones informed Fox of his decision to ditch the show, executives
refused to let him out of his contract.
"He made a request that he be written off the series and they said 'no,'" says
Jones' attorney, Martin Singer. "He's been assured that if he was unhappy with
his character's development, he could request to do so...But [producers] haven't
lived up to their promises."
Instead of letting him go, Singer claims producers forced Jones into indentured
servitude, working 17-hour days and requiring him to participate in table
readings during his lunch break--all the while relegating his character to the
background.
While CBS was not named in the lawsuit, a rep for Fox declined to comment,
citing pending litigation.
Richard T. Jones
7-1-1
Marlee Matlin
San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown connected with deaf actress Marlee Matlin,
making the first 7-1-1 call in California on a new system for the hearing impaired.
Brown's words were relayed on Monday through an operator, who typed them to a
special screen connected to Matlin's phone in Los Angeles. She typed her message
on a connected keyboard, then the operator spoke the words to Brown.
The 7-1-1 system, which began operating Monday, is available nationwide for deaf
callers or others with disabilities that prevent them from talking. The Deaf and
Disabled Telecommunications Program is free, but callers must pay any regular
connecting fees.
Prior to the 7-1-1 system, calls to and from deaf callers had to originate with
a 10-digit number that varied from state to state.
Matlin, who plays Joey Lucas on NBC's ``The West Wing,'' won an Academy Award
for her role in the 1986 film ``Children of a Lesser God.''
Marlee & 7-1-1
Music News
Chubby Checker
Chubby Checker says the music industry has left him twisting in the wind.
The king of ``The Twist'' recently took out a full-page ad in Billboard
magazine, arguing that he's one of rock 'n' roll's most important figures - and
one of its most underappreciated.
In an open letter to the entertainment industry, Checker demanded a statue of
himself in the courtyard of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in
Cleveland. If he doesn't get one, he said he'll refuse induction into the hall,
although he hasn't been voted in.
``I want my flowers while I'm alive. I can't smell them when I'm dead,'' he
wrote. ``I will not have the music business ignore my position in the industry.''
Terry Stewart, president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - which will announce
its newest inductees in December - said it would be unfair to give Checker his
own statue.
``The idea that we could elevate one individual with a statue out front would
suggest I would have to do likewise for all the rest of the people in the
pantheon,'' Stewart said. ``It's just not a reasonable request.''
Chubby Checker
Disney News
CA Adventure Puckless
Wolfgang Puck's Avalon Cove restaurant at Disney's California Adventure closed
Monday, and another high-profile eatery run by the Robert Mondavi winery has
limited its financial role in the theme park.
California Adventure has failed to meet attendance goals since it opened in
February as an alternative to neighboring Disneyland with a mix of thrill rides,
kids attractions and adult fare like high-end restaurants serving alcohol.
Puck's restaurant in the heart of the "Paradise Pier" seaside district shut its
doors Monday.
Avalon Cove did not meet the financial expectations of Los Angeles-based
Wolfgang Puck Food Co., which declined comment. Disney hopes to reopen the
restaurant in time for the holidays.
Spokesman Nancy Light said Mondavi will reduce its role from operator to sponsor
of the Golden Vine Winery, a wine-tasting retail complex and restaurant modeled
after the private dining room at the Mondavi winery in California's Napa Valley.
The principal financial issue to be resolved is Mondavi's lease on the site,
she said.
Disney's park business was already coping with the effects of a slow economy
when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks slammed the tourism industry and sent Disney
shares reeling. The stock lost .60, or 3.2%, on Monday to close at 18.02.
Buh-Bye Wolfgang
First Person Diary
Ray Berry
Ray has temporarily (I hope), suspended 'Bush-Toons'. In its place, he has put
his daily diary of life in Manhattan since Tuesday.
Ray has great observational abilities, and a wonderful way with words.
To visit & read, www.bush-toons.com
In Memory
George Gately
George Gately, the creator of the "Heathcliff" newspaper comic about the antics
of a rotund cat, has died. He was 72.
Gately died Sunday of a heart attack at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, his
brother John Gallagher said. Gately's real name was George Gately Gallagher.
Gately created his "Heathcliff" cartoon in 1973, predating "Garfield" by five
years. It featured the stylish cat, who often wore a black leather jacket and
sunglasses. The comic was later turned into an animated TV show.
He had hoped to become a musician, his brother said, but "Heathcliff" became so
popular that he was too busy drawing to pursue music full-time.
He also created the "Hapless Harry" comic in the 1960s.
John Gallagher said his brother had stopped drawing the cartoon character about
three years ago. His nephew, Peter Gallagher, had taken over the job.
George Gately
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Still MISSING
Marc Chagall's "Study for 'Over Vitebsk'"