Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Happy Week of Thanksgiving!! Is everyone getting ready for the big day and the much-anticipated long weekend? I know I am.

In the meantime, let’s get right into the news for today as I found some pretty interesting items:

TELEVISION

FOX has confirmed it will not be ordering more episodes of The Good Guys or Running Wilde. The official line is neither show has been canceled, nor have they been renewed. Take that for what it is. The Good Guys will end on December 10. (TV by the Numbers)

The Syfy version of the BBC hit series Being Human has been given a premiere date: January 17 at 9 PM. The US version is much like the original: three paranormal roommates, one a vampire Aidan (Sam Witwer), one a ghost Sally (Meaghan Rath) and one a werewolf Josh (Sam Huntington) – who share their secrets and a Boston brownstone. Together they try their best to be human while navigating the complexities of living double lives. Mark Pellegrino (Lost) co-stars as Bishop, Aidan’s charismatic but menacing vampire mentor. (The Futon Critic)

Legendary actress Olympia Dukakis has been cast as an attorney on Law & Order: SVU where she will play Debby Marsh, an attorney hired to represent the son of guest star Drea de Matteo. The episode will air on January 5 at 9 PM on NBC. (William Keck at TV Guide)

Being Erica fans rejoice! SoapNet has finally set the premiere date for season 3 of the popular Canadian series. Set your DVR’s for January 26 at 11 PM. (Jennifer Armstrong at Entertainment Weekly)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Executive producer Carlton Cuse (Lost) has teamed with director Randall Wallace for a Civil War-set drama at ABC. Little is known about the project, though. (Kate Stanhope at TV Guide)

Jorge Garcia (Lost) has joined the J.J. Abrams FOX drama pilot Alcatraz, which centers on a group of missing Alcatraz prisoners and guards who reappear in the present day. It is to chronicle the efforts of a team of FBI agents to track them down and unravel the mystery behind their disappearance thirty years prior. Garcia will play the hippy geek Dr. Diego Soto, the world’s foremost expert on Alcatraz. (Deadline)

MADE FOR TV MOVIES

Syfy has announced their upcoming made-for-TV movies for mid-season, including the following (via The Futon Critic):

Behemoth – Scientists discover a giant creature under the Earth that is wrapped around the entire planet. When the creature wakes all grumpy, it causes worldwide destruction. The movie stars Ed Quinn (Eureka) and will debut on January 15 at 9 PM.

Mega Python Vs Gatoroid – Debbie Gibson and Tiffany (yes, the former 80’s singing stars) will co-star in this about set in the Florida Everglades where giant pythons are threatening the alligator population. Gibson portrays a fanatical animal rights advocate who frees illegally imported exotic snakes from pet stores, while Tiffany plays an over-zealous park ranger worried about the growing ecological damage. The movie premieres on January 29 at 9 PM.

Metal Monster (working title) – Alien bacteria arrives on a meteorite and infects metal, animating a giant iron statue that goes on a killing rampage in a small town. The movie stars Kavan Smith (Stargate Atlantis and Eureka), Chris Gauthier (Eureka and Sanctuary), Nicole DeBoer (The Dead Zone), Paul McGillion (Stargate Atlantis) and Donnelly Rhodes (Battlestar Galactica). A premiere date has yet to be set.

Sinbad and the Minotaur – In this re-imagining of Greek and Arabic folk tales, starring Manu Bennett (Spartacus: Blood and Sand), the legendary voyager and his hearty crew of sailors and adventurers seek a long lost treasure. A premiere date has yet to be set.

Scream of the Banshee – The movie stars Lauren Holly (NCIS) as an archeology professor who unearths a dangerous artifact, unwittingly releasing a creature that is able to kill with the power of its bone-splitting scream. Lance Henriksen (Aliens) co-stars. A premiere date has yet to be set.

51 – The film chronicles what happens after political pressure from the American public forces the Air Force to provide a few well-known reporters with limited access to the most secretive base on the planet: Area 51. When one of the base’s hidden “long term visitors” exploits this unprecedented visit as a chance to liberate himself and his fellow alien captives, Area 51 turns from a secure government base to a horrifying destination of terror. The movie is a production of After Dark Films. Stars Jason London (Monsterwolf), Bruce Boxleitner (Scarecrow and Mrs. King and Tron) and Rachel Miner (Supernatural).

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Chris Zylka (10 Things I Hate About You – the TV series) is set to play Eugene “Flash” Thompson, Peter Parker’s bullying high school nemesis, in the upcoming Spider-Man reboot. (Comic Book Movie and Dark Horizons)

Here is the top 10 movies in the box office for the past weekend courtesy of Exhibitor Relations:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, $125.1 million
2. Megamind, $16.2 million
3. Unstoppable, $13.1 million
4. Due Date, $9.2 million
5. The Next Three Days, $6.8 million
6. Morning Glory, $5.2 million
7. Skyline, $3.4 million
8. Red, $2.5 million
9. For Colored Girls, $2.4 million
10. Fair Game, $1.5 million

BOX OFFICE MOVIE ARTICLES

Disney Animation is closing the book on fairy tales

Joss who? Meet the writer of the new ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ film

NOTE: It’s amazing how many fans are 1) upset by the title of the above article and 2) even more upset that Warner Bros. would try to reboot the franchise. Me, personally, I think it’s awesome that a woman has been brought in to write it, but that’s about as far as my enthusiasm goes (for right now).

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

Must Watch: First Official Trailer for Duncan Jones’ ‘Source Code’!

AWARD WINNERS

Congrats to the winners of the American Music Awards that was announced last night. Here are just some of the winners (some of whom I simply cannot name because it is too farcical to believe they even won): Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Lady Antebellum, Michael Bublé, Muse, and Glee (The Music, Volume 3—Showstoppers). (Zap2It)

Q&A SECTION (with Matt Roush at TV Guide)

Question: Do you think moving Fringe to Friday nights indicates that Fox wants to give the show a chance and is willing to accept lower numbers on a Friday than on a Thursday? Can Friday night truly become a place for more genre type shows? After all, The X-Files started on Fox on Friday nights more than 15 years ago. Or is Fox simply using it as a dumping ground recognizing that both Sarah Connor and Dollhouse failed there? Can’t there be a place on network TV for those of us more into science fiction rather than crime shows? — Faye

Matt Roush: Kind of hard to put a positive spin on this move, since this is the last place a fan of Fringe wants to see it end up on Fox’s lineup. In Fringe’s favor, this series is more established than many of the shows that Fox has hung out to dry in the Friday graveyard in recent years. And as you suggest, the expectations will be lower than on other nights, and if Fringe can hold on to much of its Thursday audience when it moves to Fridays in late January (following Kitchen Nightmares, not the most compatible lead-in), that could be seen as a win. But this move is hardly a sign of confidence in a show that took a big risk this season with its alternating split-universe structure. To answer your rhetorical question about the future of sci-fi on network TV: It’s always a risk, but there should be a place on the schedule of an adventurous network like Fox for cult TV with strong media buzz and loyal (if relatively modest in size) fan support.

Question: Is there anything you can do to get Terriers a second season? I love the show so much, and it’s one of the few new shows this year—or maybe the only one—that I fell in love with so quickly in such a short period of time. (I really like Boardwalk Empire, The Walking Dead and Justified, but I don’t love them yet, and Caprica and Rubicon, two flawed shows that I have a soft spot for, are already cancelled.) It’s so odd, too, because it seems like such an accessible show. It has great stand-alone stories that technically qualifies it as a “procedural” show, but on top of that it also has great ongoing arcs for the season, great writing, emotional and really hilarious at the same time, awesome characters, and really interesting relationships between those characters which makes it easy for people to get attached to it. But knowing how abysmal the ratings are, and that TV is a business after all, is there any possible way that FX could renew the show? This year hasn’t been a strong year for new shows, and I hate to see the strongest new show to get axed. Hmm, maybe just to cheer me up, are there any past examples where a show has horrendous ratings but gets a second (or third, or fourth) season despite it? — Belly

Matt Roush: As I noted in last week’s Q&A, whatever call FX makes regarding Terriers’ future will not be an easy one. If it doesn’t get renewed, I’ll be unhappy—and I agree with you that the show is easy to watch and enjoy without being simplistically formulaic—but I can’t say I’ll be surprised. To answer your first question, there’s nothing I can personally do to save the show beyond urging people to watch, as I have been doing pretty relentlessly since at least the show’s midpoint, when it became clear Terriers had something more going for it than the frothy diversion I positively reviewed at the start. To answer your last question, HBO seems unwilling to cancel almost anything these days regardless of how few people are watching (this applies mostly to the network’s dismal comedies, but also to In Treatment). And then there’s Friday Night Lights, which had the good luck to be rescued by DirecTV when it was on the brink of being canceled by NBC.

That’s it. Enjoy!