Swingtown

Grant Show is one of those actors who's been a part of my life ever since I can remember having crushes. The Beverly Hills, 90210 episode where he waltzed in as Kelly Taylor's love interest/carpenter is clear as day to me, and it's also what launched the show's steamer, nuttier '90s spinoff, Melrose Place.

Well, the '90s moved on, and so did Show. Most recently, he played the big-hearted Tom on CBS's Swingtown, and tonight, he'll make his debut on Private Practice for the first installment of his multiepisode arc as Addison's brother Archer (how great are those sibling names?). He was gracious enough to let me chat him up about this new character, the fate of Swingtown, and his thoughts on the Melrose Place reboot. Here are highlights:

How did you get involved with Private Practice? Did you know Shonda Rhimes?
I do now! They were looking for someone to play Addison's brother. I just went in and met them — I had never met them before — just sat down . . . and as it turned out, the kind of character I was looking to play was what they wanted out of this guy, so it just kind of worked out. I've been playing Tom, who's this sexual character, he's a nice guy, he's a good guy . . . So I wanted to play that kind of character just the other side of the coin, not such a nice guy, and that's kind of what they were looking for in Archer.

Was it a relief to toss the mustache?
Yeah, as soon as they called wrap on the [last] episode of Swingtown, I went into the makeup trailer and shaved it off.

Oh, that was a real mustache?
Yeah, it was really mine. I wore it for a year and half.

To see the rest of our chat (caution: a couple of light spoilers), just read more

• Kenneth Branagh is in talks to direct the live-action Thor movie. — Variety
• Jesse McCartney and Ken Marino will guest-star in upcoming episodes of Greek. — Zap2it
• It's official: Bruce Springsteen is the entertainment for this year's Super Bowl halftime show. — Billboard
• Bravo will air reruns of Swingtown but has no plans to produce new episodes. — Hollywood Reporter
• Um, wait, what? It looks like Russell Crowe will play both the Sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood in Ridley Scott's movie Nottingham. — ComingSoon
• HBO is developing a series called Americatown about the exodus of US citizens to another country after a period of financial decline. — TV Guide
• A dispute over the release date of the Kate Winslet WWII-era romance movie The Reader has been settled: The film will open Dec. 12. — Variety
• Pam's ex-boyfriend Roy is booking a return trip to The Office. — E! Online

Source and source

It's almost Labor Day weekend, and you know what that means! No, not the last of beach weather or the beginning of a new school year — Fall TV is almost back! I'm beyond thrilled to get back into the worlds of my favorite shows, whether it's the juicy salaciousness of Gossip Girl, the dramatics of Grey's Anatomy, or the deadpan hilarity of The Office. I've missed my TV friends.

That said, there are a few Summer shows that I've become addicted to, and will certainly miss once the new TV season starts up. Kathy Griffin's My Life on the D-List is already over, and I'm kinda sad about it. I loved watching her ridiculous antics week after week. Mad Men is still going strong, and you know how I feel about that show because I tell you every week in my rundown posts.

I'm still totally hooked on Army Wives, and I actually think this season is better than the first. This isn't often the case with second seasons, and I gotta say Lifetime continues to impress me with this show. Finally: Swingtown. It's not necessarily high-quality television, but somewhere along the way I got hooked on this show, and I find myself hoping some network will pick up the series if CBS does not.

What are you still watching? Or has your TV been dark all Summer (except for the Olympics)?

My Life on the D-List photo courtesy of Bravo
Army Wives photo courtesy of Lifetime
Swingtown photo courtesy of CBS

• CBS's summertime series Swingtown is being shopped around to potential cable buyers in case network does not renew it for a second season. — Broadcasting & Cable
• Nicolas Cage will join Christopher Mintz-Plasse for Matthew Vaughn's adaptation of the comic book Kick-Ass. — ComingSoon
• Warner Bros. has confirmed that they are planning to do a total reboot of the Superman franchise. — ComingSoon
• Benjamin McKenzie (a.k.a. Ryan from The O.C.) is in talks to join the NBC drama LAPD. — Zap2It
• Rihanna's "Disturbia" has managed to stay at No. 1 of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, edging out David Archuleta's "Crush." — Reuters
• James Cromwell will join Christian Slater in NBC's Fall drama My Own Worst Enemy; meanwhile Blythe Danner will guest star in an episode of Medium. — EW
• MTV aims to create another reality show, this time for girls who want to be models, but who have to lose 30-80 pounds first. — ABC News
• Mary J. Blige and Robin Thicke will tour together, starting Sept.13 in Charlston, S.C. — Billboard

Photo courtesy of CBS

Nina Tassler was the third network executive of the week to take the stage at the TCA press tour today, and she shed some light on the departure of Moonlight, the future of Swingtown, and what CSI will look like sans William Petersen. Some highlights:

• To help fill the hole on CSI left by Petersen's departure later this season, Tassler said the producers plan to introduce a new character with "an interesting genetic profile" that is comparable to that found in many serial killers. His character is on something of a journey of self-discovery, she said. But he's not going to be a direct replacement for Petersen's character: "He is an outsider coming into the CSI unit," Tassler said, and he is not (at least immediately) the boss. They're still searching for an actor to play the role.
• As for Moonlight, Tassler reminded reporters that she's not anti-vampire. "Everybody knows I love vampires," she said. "Vampires, witches, werewolves, warlocks — I love them all." But she said that while there was a lot of outcry over the show's cancellation, most of it was passion for star Alex O'Loughlin rather than the show as a whole. She said she'd love to find a place for O'Loughlin on another show in the future.
• Tassler said CBS supports and believes in Swingtown, but she's "a little disappointed in the ratings." As of now, there's no decision made about whether to renew the show or not — though CBS is at least confident enough to have the cast attend tonight's all-star party.

To see what Tassler had to say about Britney Spears and Sarah Chalke on How I Met Your Mother, just read more

Welcome to the Caption It game on BuzzSugar! Every other Wednesday, I'll post a photo still from a TV show or movie here and challenge you to think of the most hilarious caption possible. I'll announce the finalists the following Tuesday, and you'll get to vote for the best caption; the winner will get a fabulous BuzzSugar T-shirt!

Poor Chad Michael Murray! I enjoyed reading your captions that attempted to decipher what led this young man to such a sorrowful state in our last Caption It picture. Ultimately, most of you agreed that the cancellation of your favorite TV show is a powerful reason to hit the bottle. Congrats to frogandprince, whose caption got the most votes in the poll:

Peyton: "I'm disappointed they canceled Moonlight too, Luke."

Now on to this week's challenge, which comes from a show I suspected would be fertile ground for this contest: the new CBS show Swingtown.

Leave your captions in the comment space below before 5 p.m. PDT on Monday, June 16, to be considered for a spot in the voting round. Have fun! To see a photo of the BuzzSugar T-shirt, just read more

You know, I really want to like CBS' Swingtown, which premieres tonight at 10 p.m. I didn't make it one of my Top Ten Reasons to Keep Your TV On This Summer for nothing. But, unfortunately, the network's promo department doesn't seem to be doing the show many favors.

My evidence: the following video, a sneak peek of tonight's premiere, in which main couple Susan and Bruce Miller move to the suburbs and discover a whole new world of drugs and sex awaiting them. The video sets up what's going to happen in tonight's episode, which is fine — but it's made in the style of one of those seven-minute Sopranos videos, which seem to work best for established series whose viewers are ready to poke a little fun at a show's conventions. Applying it to a new show just makes Swingtown seem silly — which, reviews suggest, is one thing it isn't.

My hope remains that the show will be smarter than this video suggests, and I'll be tuning in tonight to see for myself. Anyone with me? To watch the sneak peek, just read more

At last year's upfronts, I was surprised to see CBS attempting to step out of its crime-procedural-and-laugh-track- comedy box with a couple of shows that sounded distinctly different from anything the network had done in a while. The first was Viva Laughlin and, well, we know how that turned out. The other was Swingtown, set in the socially (and sexually) revolutionary '70s.

Swingtown is finally getting its premiere this Summer, and over the past couple of weeks, CBS has started to promote it — I caught one ad after How I Met Your Mother on Monday. The show centers on Susan and Bruce Miller, who move into a ritzy Chicago suburb and discover a seedy alluring side to life that they never knew existed. Watching the promo, I'm having trouble imagining CBS's typically older demographic reacting well to this — but I certainly want to see more. Banishing a series to the Summer typically means it isn't very good (unless it's on cable), but with more networks talking about programming year-round, maybe Swingtown can be an exception.

Besides its thematic resemblance to one of my favorite movies (The Ice Storm), Swingtown has at least one other cool thing going for it: Liz Phair is doing the soundtrack. Melrose Place fans also might get a kick out of seeing Grant Show in the ensemble. Does Swingtown intrigue you as much as it does me? To check out the trailer, just read more