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'Hurl' serves up gross-out reality
"Hurl!," the reality contest that premieres tonight on guy-centric network G4, is exactly what you'd expect it to be: completely, totally gross.
'Hurl' serves up gross-out reality
"Hurl!," the reality contest that premieres tonight on guy-centric network G4, is exactly what you'd expect it to be: completely, totally gross.
Heath Ledger's death makes marketing film a tricky proposition
He's featured in the billboards that tower over Manhattan and Sunset Boulevard. He's the central figure in trailers that are widely viewed on YouTube. His name is whispered pointedly as an Oscar contender. As Warner Brothers rolls out its publicity campaign for "The Dark Knight," the $180 million Batman movie that arrives in theaters Friday, the marketing seems centered, not ...
Making teen self-improvement a reality
There's something strangely satisfying about watching teenagers on reality TV. Still mired in the age of self-absorption, they're not world-weary enough - or, for the most part, media-savvy enough - to deal in anything but utter honesty.
From Baltimore to Baghdad: The 'Wire' team takes on Iraq
When HBO sent along the book "Generation Kill," Ed Burns recalls, he and David Simon - his producing partner from "The Wire" - knew they had found their next project: another series that would be as challenging for viewers as it would be for producers.
UniverSoul's thrills are inclusive, inventive, and fun
Some circuses are packaged as throwback entertainment, transporting the audience to an earlier, simpler time. The UniverSoul Circus, whose big top is spread over a Northeastern University parking lot this weekend, takes a classic venue and makes it appealingly modern. The music tends toward hip-hop and reggaeton. The tone is casual, sometimes even a little sarcastic.
Pop goes the traditional music lesson
WEYMOUTH - In a second-floor recording studio on a steamy afternoon, drums crash, guitar chords blare, and rock lyrics spew forth at a higher-than-usual pitch. Nine-year-old Nick Bell, his 10-year-old brother Jake, and their 11-year-old friend Andrew McElman are playing "Highway to Hell."
'Secret Life' offers stereotypes of American teens
Just ask the girls in Gloucester, or the management team for actress Ellen Page: Teen pregnancy has been so glamorized, analyzed, and magnified in pop culture that it was bound to become the subject of a television series. This summer, ABC Family takes on the task. And hands the reins to the creator of the pious WB series "7th Heaven." ...
'The Singing Office' experiences a production shortfall
The false conceit of most televised talent shows, from "American Idol" to "America's Best Dance Crew," is the notion that superstars lurk, undiscovered, in the general population. In truth, most reality finalists have trained in their fields for years, gained and lost record contracts, taken steps to make it big in the professional world. And it's better that way. True ...
Will Americans fall for Japanese-style game shows?
Apparently, Americans have at least one major quality in common with the Japanese: a willingness to fall down dramatically on camera, preferably into muddy water. When the creators of "Fear Factor" started casting "Wipeout" - a new slapstick contest with a clear kinship to Tokyo game show fare - they had no trouble attracting contestants. Ditto the producers of "I ...
Disney's latest is prefabulous
Parents of tween and pre-tween girls, you might as well surrender. Due to the presence of the Jonas Brothers and the skillful application of the Disney Tween Movie Formula, "Camp Rock," the new movie that launches on the Disney Channel tonight at 8, is destined to be a summertime hit.
Disney's 'Camp Rock' is prefabulous
Parents of tween and pre-tween girls, you might as well surrender. Due to the presence of the Jonas Brothers and the skillful application of the Disney Tween Movie Formula, "Camp Rock," the new movie that launches on the Disney Channel tonight at 8, is destined to be a summertime hit.
For this 'View,' a softer Obama
Let it be said that Michelle Obama knows how to command a stage - at least a stage as small as the faux-kitchen-table set of ABC's "The View." During her guest-host turn on the women's talk show yesterday, she walked onto the set latched to Barbara Walters's arm, looking almost shy. But once settled in her seat, she briefly took ...
For this 'View,' a softer Obama
Let it be said that Michelle Obama knows how to command a stage - at least a stage as small as the faux-kitchen-table set of ABC's "The View." During her guest-host turn on the women's talk show Wednesday, she walked onto the set latched to Barbara Walters's arm, looking almost shy. But once settled in her seat, she briefly took ...
Summer series keeps it light and low-budget
"The Middleman," the new 13-week series on ABC Family, premieres tonight with a fresh-faced female crime-fighting recruit and a highly comic villain: a genetically modified gorilla who has spent too much time watching mobster movies.
In on-demand world, can parents maintain control?
When I was a pint-size TV junkie of a kid, I lived a life beholden to the television schedule. On Saturdays, I would wake up shortly after dawn and spend hours awaiting the start of Saturday Morning Cartoons. When I grew older, I watched "Charlie's Angels" reruns after school, chiefly because they were on.
A zany cartoon debut for an animated pair
Most TV series are propelled into the world by creative vision, ambition, all-out effort, and dreams of market domination. With "Click & Clack's As the Wrench Turns," the upcoming PBS cartoon featuring "Car Talk" stars Tom and Ray Magliozzi, it took something else - a whole lot of cajoling.
In 'Freeheld,' it's power to the people
Having lived through years' worth of fierce and emotional public debates on gay marriage, the people in Massachusetts know the truth about the politics of equality: grant people rights, the world doesn't end, and opposition starts to fade away. Complacency and inertia are powerful allies.
A long, atypical journey across America
The Sundance Channel is billing its new documentary series, "On the Road in America," as the sort of "groundbreaking" TV that has the power to change the world. That's a tall order for what amounts to a high-minded, serious version of "Borat": four foreigners cross the country and meet the American people, in hopes that some wisdom crosses in either ...
Documentary listens in 'At the Death House Door'
There must be a moment of giddiness when filmmakers realize they've found the perfect subject: someone eloquent and emotional, bound to a major issue of our time, possessing the perspective and the artifacts to give his story heft.