Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Celebrities, Retro Squad, Reality-Free

I know many of you have been waiting for this moment, so I’ll get right to it. Tonight begins the official entry of Family Matters onto the Nick at Nite schedule. Starting at 9 p.m., there will be a marathon of the series that began as a spinoff of the ABC sitcom Perfect Strangers.

For those unfamiliar with the show, Family Matters was a traditional sitcom about the Winslows — Carl, Harriet, Eddie, Laura, the other daughter that mysteriously disappeared mid-way through the series, Grandma Estelle, Aunt Rachel, and, eventually, cousin Richie. Of course, all of these characters became second bananas to one Steve Urkel, who eventually became the star of the show. Face it, you didn’t tune in to see what wisdom Carl would pass on to his son Eddie. You tuned in to see Urkel breaking something at the Winslow home, fawning over Laura, inventing transformation chambers and Urkel-bots, and uttering the now-famous phrase, “Did I do that?”

To get you warmed up for Urkel specifically and Family Matters as a whole, Nick at Nite has provided an Urkel-O-Meter on their website to determine how much of the suspenders-wearing nerd we have in all of us. By answering a few questions the Urkel-O-Meter tells you if you are suave like Stefan Urquelle, a belle like Myrtle Urkel, or a true, lovable nerd like Urkel himself. After taking the quiz it turns out that I am a true Steve Urkel. Well, no surprise to some of you readers out there, is it?

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Filed under: Celebrities, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free

When I look at some of the people who have emerged as today’s biggest stars on TV, I scratch my head and wonder, “how did that happen?” There are a few stars who have completely exceeded my expectations — and I bet yours, too. In fact, after you read my five (no cell phone pun intended), I’m betting that you’ll have a few more overachievers to add to the list.

1) Ty Pennington
I’m not ashamed to admit that for a couple of years I was hooking on TLC’s Trading Spaces. It may have been the perky Paige Davis, the home improvement on a $1,000, the cool things that the designers did in just 24 hours — whatever it was, I was a regular viewer. Oh, yes, there was also a carpenter on the show named Ty Pennington.

Continue reading Five TV stars who’ve exceeded expectations

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Filed under: Casting, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Harry Potter, Images

This morning I got an email from Snitchseeker.com, a Harry Potter fansite, pointing me to some pics they have up of young Hero Fiennes-Tiffin (nephew of Ralph Fiennes, who plays the evil Voldemort in the Harry Potter franchise). Fiennes-Tiffin is playing Young Tom Riddle (aka the Future Dark Lord, Voldemort) in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Nice call on the part of the casting director to have a relative of Fiennes play the younger character.

You can see all the pics over on Snitchseeker; they’re apparently from another film the young actor is in, Bigga than Ben. Fiennes-Tiffin looks oh-so-sweet-and-innocent — he hardly looks like the sort who’d grow up to wreak havoc on the wizarding world, tossing around Imperius curses at his enemies and plotting to rid the world of good guys like Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter. But then again, it’s always the innocent looking ones who sneak up on you and turn out to be evil dark lords trying to take over the world, isn’t it?

Continue reading Harry Potter Update: Pics of Young Voldemort, Looking Cute and Mostly Harmless

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Filed under: Interviews, Celebrities, Psych, Reality-Free

Psych is coming back! Starting on July 18th, the comedy starring James Roday and Dule Hill will be returning to USA Network with all new episodes. The third season of this series looks to be a very interesting one, as viewers will finally get to meet Shawn Spencer’s long-lost mother as well as get to see a more dramatic side of the character … something we got a taste of during the last few episodes of last season.

The two stars of Psych got together with the press last week to touch on a number of subjects. Topics included a preview of the upcoming season, a discussion about the duo’s “Ebony & Ivory” commercial, Roday’s appearance on the NBC anthology Fear Itself, and the never-ending 1980s references that the two spout during each episode.

Continue reading James and Dule talk Psych

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Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Programming, OpEd, In the Limelight, Celebrities, Reality-Free

No, it’s not Adrien Brody’s snarky older brother. It’s David Pasquesi, one of the stars of Spike TV’s first original half-hour comedy, The Factory.

Looking at Pasquesi’s IMDb page, he’s done a fair amount of TV and film work, but the majority of his experience comes from both theater and improv. He currently does shows and occasionally teaches at Chicago’s IO (Improv Olympic). Back in the day, he honed his improv chops under the tutelage of the legendary Del Close and was part of the class that developed The Harold. An improv geek’s reaction to that would be “Holy crap!” and everyone else should be thinking, “Who’s Harold?” Yeah, don’t worry about it. If this interests you though, check out this great interview he did back in ‘06, all about his work in improv.

Continue reading David Pasquesi: In the Limelight - VIDEOS

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Filed under: Industry, Programming, Web, Celebrities, Reality-Free

What’s happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• The estate of the creator of Mr. Ed is suing MGM for royalties.
• Here’s a complete guide to the (possible) strike and what we can expect on Monday.
• Jaime Weinman has some thoughts on CBS’ sitcom strategy.
• There’s a new cartoon coming, about John Oates’ (of Hall and Oates) mustache, who play rock music and fight crime.
• Boy Meets World star Ben Savage is joining Chuck, playing Nicole Richie’s husband.
• CNBC + a jar of mayonnaise = either a really gross rumor or a really stupid rumor.
• Did you know that there’s a Rock Paper Scissors league, and Fox Sports will telecast the tournament in October?

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Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Interviews, Celebrities, So You Think You Can Dance

On Tuesday I headed over to the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, CA for a taping of America’s Best Dance Crew. I sat back in the V.I.P. room while the taping was going on. The show, which tapes at Stage 23, has a gigantic set this season (probably due to the first season’s enormous and unexpected success). The taping is so boring though. While I was watching, they spent about twenty minutes taping the first thirty seconds where Mario Lopez starts things off. Each time they tweaked something he said, he got a little more annoyed. The audience never seemed to get tired of doing their job, applauding like maniacs.

But before anything started I got to interview judge Shane Sparks. Find out more about what Sparks had to say about his involvement with America’s Best Dance Crew, his absence on this season’s So You Think You Can Dance, Wade Robson, and the JabbaWockeeZ after the jump.

Continue reading Shane Sparks: The TV Squad Interview

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Filed under: Comedy, Casting

There’s even more casting news on the Son of Mourning front, which is making this whole flick seem even sweeter. However, before I get to that, the project got itself a name change. In the casting news that went up at The Hollywood Reporter, it’s said that the film will drop the “U” and now be called Son of Morning. That’s … a totally different tone.

Anyway, on the heels of a couple Sopranos stars, Jesse Bradford, Steven Weber, Bob Odenkirk, and the ever-wonderful Edward Herrmann have signed on to the satire. The movie stars Joseph Cross as a copywriter who goes home to think over his parent’s divorce, and “after a series of environmental disasters, is mistaken for Jesus Christ.” How does that work? Does a hurricane hit that has clouds shaped in such a way that they look like this guy? Does he go to a costume party dressed as Jesus when all this badness hits? I don’t get it.

Of course, people like Bradford, who plays a Hollywood agent, and Weber, who plays a lieutenant governer, descend upon the poor dude to capitalize on his new-found fame. Odenkirk will play the guy’s co-worker, and finally Herrmann will be the new Jesus’ father figure and mentor. You can’t do much better than that.

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Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free

Despite being panned for her performance at last year’s MTV Video Music Awards, it seems that MTV wants her back. the president of MTV Music Networks Van Toffler has been quoted as saying “Everyone deserves a second or third chance, right?”

Spears “Gimme More” performance at last year’s awards at the Palms Casino Resort drew 7.1 million viewers according to Nielsen Media Research. It was the show’s most talked-about moment.

This year’s VMA’s will take place at the Paramount Pictures Studios in Los Angeles on September 7th. The show’s performances will occur on the lot’s various sound stages, rooftops and faux city streets.

Honestly, doesn’t Britney have enough money? Shouldn’t she concentrate more on attempting to see her kids? She looked pretty out of it during the last show (which is probably the source of all the gossip) and it’s time for her to take a long break. Unless, of course, she’s being prepared for the harvest.

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Filed under: Industry, Celebrities, Weeds, Reality-Free

Former Weeds co-star Romany Malco is developing his own series and testing it out on YouTube viewers. Malco decided to create his own character after his Weeds role was written out of the show. He’s leaving Conrad Shepard behind and moving on to the role of Tijuana “T.J.” Jackson.

Malco described Tijuana Jackson as an ex-convict living under house arrest. Under a strange, “only on TV” legal arrangement, T.J. stays out of jail by supporting the three women that live with him. The women also happen to be prostitutes and T.J.’s employees.

Continue reading Romany Malco’s new show is coming to YouTube

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