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The TV Guy

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All about television and entertainment with Phillip Ramati.


  • Going Linsane Over Lin

    You'd think in the 21st century, the media would be better equipped to handle a story like the one of Jeremy Lin, an Asian-American Harvard grad who has set the NBA on fire with his nightly performances for the New York Knicks, who signed Lin as an emergency option at point guard after two other teams cut him. Lin has become THE superstar in the NBA, over the likes of Kobe and LeBron, because his story is so interesting -- and because he's the very rare Asian-American to make an impact on th...

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    Feb. 21, 2012 | Permalink

  • Ready To 'Race' Again

    One of the biggest challenges for a show like "The Amazing Race" (CBS, Sunday, 8 p.m.) is how to keep it fresh after 20 editions. On the one hand, if they do the same show the same way over and over, it gets dull; but if they change the rules too much, they risk messing up the formula that made them successful in the first place. Having seen the first episode, I can report that so far, the producers have found the correct amount of tweaks to put in. Nothing major has changed, but the...

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    Feb. 17, 2012 | Permalink

  • Oprah's Gauche Move

    During Sunday's Grammys, Oprah Winfrey tweeted to viewers asking them to switch over and watch the programming on OWN network -- especially the Nielsen viewers. The former queen of daytime TV got a stern reprimand from Nielsen because it goes against the rules to lobby Nielsen households directly. Because of that, Nielsen is putting an asterisk next to all OWN programming this week to note the lobbying. In one sense, what Oprah did was crass but not necessarily wrong -- after all, doesn't e...

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    Feb. 16, 2012 | Permalink

  • 'Cougar Town' Is A Valentine's Gift

    According to legend, Cassandra, the high priestess of Troy, was given the gift of prophecy but because she ticked off the gods, was cursed that no one would believe her dire predictions. Thus, Troy fell because the Trojans didn't look a gift horse in the mouth. In modern times, writer Bill Lawrence has the gift of being one of the funniest writers on TV, but is cursed by TV network executives who somehow don't seem to fully appreciate that talent, thus forcing his brilliant series like "Scru...

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    Feb. 14, 2012 | Permalink

  • Ships That Haven't Sailed

    Right in time for Valentine's Week, Entertainment Weekly has a pretty good article in the current edition that talks about "shippers," those fans of a TV series that desperately wants two main characters to hook up in a relationship. "Castle" (ABC, 10 p.m.) is a good example. Now in its third season, there are fans who are anticipating not if, but when, Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic) finally get together. The danger of that, of course, is the "Moonlighting" effect. When D...

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    Feb. 13, 2012 | Permalink

  • 'Walking Dead' Returns

    Just a brief update, since I am swamped at work today. "The Walking Dead" returns Sunday night at 9 p.m., followed at 10 p.m. by a reality show set in writer/director Kevin Smith's comic book store in New Jersey. Everything you would normally watch this weekend is new, with the exception of CBS Sunday night, which is airing the Grammy Awards at 8 p.m.

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    Feb. 10, 2012 | Permalink

  • 'House' Announces It Will End This Season

    Fox and the producers announced Wednesday that the long-running medical drama "House" will finish at the end of this season. It's been speculated about for months, so the announcement isn't that much of a surprise. While the ratings (and quality) have declined over the past couple of years, it's still a big draw for Fox on Mondays. But star Hugh Laurie has expressed his desire to do other things, leading the producers to wrap things up at the end of the year. Jerry Seinfeld once used the ol...

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    Feb. 09, 2012 | Permalink

  • Lost Up 'The River'

    All of the hype leading up to tonight's debut of "The River" (ABC, 9 p.m.) has been hailing it as the new "Lost." I watched "Lost." "Lost" was one of my favorite shows. "The River" is no "Lost." Created by Oren Peli, director of the "Paranormal" movies, "The River" uses the same style of cinema verite to tell the story of famed explorer Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood) who disappeared during a trip into the Amazon. His former producer (Paul Blackthorne) promises to fund an expedition to find ...

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    Feb. 07, 2012 | Permalink

  • NBC Hoping For 'Smash'

    NBC's fortunes are riding a lot on its new drama, "Smash," which debuts tonight at 10 p.m. after a two-hour edition of "The Voice." One of the most hyped shows of the season, "Smash" is hoping to capture the same musical phenomenon that "Glee" had when it debuted three years ago. Before I saw the pilot, I figured "Smash" had two major challenges: overcoming the "Glee" fatigue that has caught up with that show, and trying to make Broadway interesting to people with little interest in that ge...

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    Feb. 06, 2012 | Permalink

  • In Good Voice

    When naming the best new shows of 2011, I put NBC's "The Voice" on the list because the creators managed to make something unique that stood out from the "American Idol"/"X-Factor"/"America's Got Talent" format that most music competitions take. The producers managed to find four judges (Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, and Blake Shelton) that complemented one another; a terrific range of vocal talent; and the right mix of letting the judges and the public decide who would be t...

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    Feb. 03, 2012 | Permalink

  • Super Bowl Ad Shuffle

    One of the things about the Super Bowl is the anticipation of the six hours worth of commercials the game provides viewers. Since the game is the most-watched event each year, ad rates are at a premium and advertisers try to make certain their commercial is the most talked-about. But, already, the trend is changing as many advertisers are already airing their Super Bowl ads online. Honda has produced a very funny "sequel" to the movie "Ferris Beuller's Day Off" as actor Matthew Broderick dec...

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    Feb. 02, 2012 | Permalink

  • 'Simpsons' Marathon

    A friend posted this on Facebook yesterday, and I thought it was kind of neat. From the LA Times: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2012/01/simpsons-marathon-set-to-celebrate-the-shows-500th-episode.html?fb_comment_id=fbc_10150561698342520_20955679_10150569246857520#f33c6dd6bdbb4d Five hundred episodes of any series is a little hard to imagine, and watching them consecutively is almost impossible. To give you a perspective of just how long "The Simpsons" has been on, we watched t...

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    Jan. 31, 2012 | Permalink

  • 40 Years of Watching TV

    To mark turning 40 today, here are some of the highlights from the world of TV over my first four decades. 1972: HBO was launched. Notable TV shows that debuted included "Sanford & Son," "Emergency," "Fat Albert," "Kung Fu," "The Waltons" and one of my all-time favorite shows, "MASH." The top-rated series that year was "All In The Family," with a high-rating of 34.0 and a share of 54.0. In other words, 54 percent of all TVs that were turned on when "All In The Family" ran were tuned int...

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    Jan. 30, 2012 | Permalink

  • Replacing An Actor

    There aren't too many times when an actor is replaced on a TV show for the same role. On occasion, you get pilots that are shot where an actor is later replaced, such as Lauren Graham replacing Maura Tierney on "Parenthood." But once a show is established, if for some reason the actor leaves or dies, the character also leaves the show and is replaced by a different character. There are a few notable exceptions: Dick Sargent replaced Dick York as Darren on "Bewitched;" Sarah Chalke replaced ...

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    Jan. 27, 2012 | Permalink

  • Hard 'Luck'

    Given its pedigree, I have to admit that my expectations for the new HBO series, "Luck," were pretty high. The series, which had a sneak preview last month and debuts Sunday at 9 p.m., comes from the creative minds of David Milch ("Deadwood") and Michael Mann ("Heat"), and features a cast that includes Dustin Hoffman, Nick Nolte, Dennis Farina, Jill Hennessey and others. With that much talent involved on both sides of the camera, how could it not be good? Simple: You still have to tell a co...

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    Jan. 26, 2012 | Permalink

  • 'Touch'-ed By Sutherland

    OK, no Jack Bauer jokes in regards to Kiefer Sutherland's new Fox series, "Touch," which debuts at 9 p.m. Yes, at one point he accidentally slams his hand in a drawer and shouts "Dammit!" and at another point, he is running through a crowded train station, trying to get to a specific phone at exactly 3:18 p.m. "Touch" is more of a spiritual drama, with Sutherland starring as widower Martin Boum. who is trying to take care of his severely autistic son Jake (David Mazouz), who has never spoke...

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    Jan. 25, 2012 | Permalink

  • Oscar Noms Announced

    Here's the list of 2012 Oscar nominations, which I leave you to peruse at your leisure: http://movies.msn.com/academy-awards/nominees-list/ Probably the biggest surprise omission, at least for me, was Michael Fassbender missing out on a Best Actor nod. It's hard to think of an actor who had a better year, given his critical acclaim in "Shame" and "A Dangerous Method" and his commercial appeal in "X-Men: First Class." Personally, I was also disappointed not to see the final Harry Potter fli...

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    Jan. 24, 2012 | Permalink

  • Grumpy In My Old Age

    Perhaps it's because I'm getting old, but I'm not giving TV series the same chances to get established on my weekly playlist as I once might have. I was about 5 minutes into watching "The Fades" on BBC America on Saturday -- a series that in theory should be right up my alley -- and I turned it off, wiping it from my DVR. It just wasn't working for me in a dramatic sense, so I tanked it. I barely made it through the entire debut of "Lost Girl," (SyFy, 10 p.m.) last week. Perhaps my patience...

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    Jan. 23, 2012 | Permalink

  • 'Shark' Tales

    I had to admit, I was a little skeptical when "Shark Tank" (ABC, 8 p.m.) added Mark Cuban to the mix of millionaires bidding for start-up businesses. But having seen the first two episodes of the show this season, I can report that he really helps to mix things up. "Shark Tank" has settled into its own. Having spun off from the UK version "Dragon's Den" (which BBC America no longer wants to air, even though it's still going on in Britain), "Shark" was the louder, more obnoxious US version wh...

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    Jan. 20, 2012 | Permalink

  • Quick Update

    Just a very brief update today, because it's a busy day. The overnights came in for "American Idol," and it's sort of a good news/bad news situation: It drew 21.6 million, making it the most watched non-sports show on TV -- except for "NCIS" -- but its ratings are down 17 percent compared to last year. Maybe they shouldn't have spent so much of the opening of last night's broadcast saying how they are the original music show. Though they never mentioned "The Voice" by name, they seemed awfu...

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    Jan. 19, 2012 | Permalink
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