TCA Time! Gavin and Stacey, Heigl, and More

July 9, 2008

It's time again for the Television Critics Association's Summer press tour, when the networks trot out their shows and stars for reporters in LA. Pop and I will be bringing you reports live from the Beverly Hilton once the network portion of the tour kicks off on Monday (you can get a taste of what you're in for by looking at last year's posts), but until then, I'm watching the Web to see what comes out of the first few days of cable network presentations. Some goodies so far:

The British show Gavin and Stacey, one of PopUK's favorites, totally won over the room at Tuesday's BBC America session, even prompting critics who didn't like it on first watch to give it another shot. I've been excited to check out the show for a while — even more so since NBC is plotting a remake — and now I'm even more looking forward to its Aug. 26 premiere.
In a session for the Hallmark Channel, Grey's Anatomy's Chandra Wilson (who's starring in an upcoming Hallmark movie) ended up addressing the Katherine Heigl controversy and her perceived slam at the Grey's writers. "It kind of got blown out of proportion," she said. "Some years you submit. Some years you don't."
Apparently today, there was a session featuring Sean Young, Mikalah Gordon, and Lorenzo Lamas. I would have loved to be in that room.

A couple more items, so read more.

Here's some inspiration for FitSugar devotees: The Style Network is producing a show in which a 500-pound woman tries to lose weight.
No surprise here: The Soup's Joel McHale never worries about a lack of celebrities to skewer.
If you're into journalists hand-wringing about the sorry state of . . . everything, there's a whole spate of stories this year about whether the TCA tour is still relevant. As one of the bloggers supposedly detracting from the quality of the audience in the room, I appreciate the views of this guy, a newspaper critic who came from the online world.

Mad Men was among the shows scheduled to take the stage today, so I'll keep my eyes open for any interesting reports!

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