Michael Cassidy, star of TBS’s Men at Work, stopped by our Los Angeles studio. He told Matthew Rodrigues about an upcoming O.C. reunion on the second season of Men at Work and his exciting day filming Argo.
Conan O'Brien is returning to late night TV on cable network TBS, a move BuzzSugar thinks is right for the red-headed funnyman.
Rumors about the fate of Conan O'Brien's career have been flying for months, but now it's official: the late-night host will move to TBS. He said, "In three months I've gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I'm headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly." Conan's new hour-long show will premiere in November (after the World Series) at 11 p.m., right before Lopez Tonight.
For a while it sounded like O'Brien would be headed to Fox, but apparently a call from George Lopez himself helped him make his final decision. Lopez said, "I can't think of anything better than doing my show with Conan as my lead-in. It's the beginning of a new era in late-night comedy."
Sounds like a new era indeed. TBS seems worlds away from NBC, but maybe we're looking at a changing zeitgeist here. Will you follow Conan to his new network?
If you've been watching My Boys on TBS for all three of its seasons, you've probably noticed that each season ends with a cliffhanger of some kind, and according to the show's star, Jordana Spiro (P.J.), tonight's cliffhanger is "far and away" her favorite one. The gang heads to Arizona for the Cubs' Spring training and P.J. tries to get a fresh, interesting story for her column. To get these scenes, apparently Spiro and a camera operator walked around the stadium and Spiro interviewed random people in character as P.J.
There's the possibility that P.J. and Bobby will "take the next step" in their relationship tonight, though I sort of hope they don't — I like watching their relationship gradually grow. Another thing I like: the snarky teasing between Stephanie and Kenny (who had quite the night in last season's finale!), who are so clearly into each other. I wonder if something else will happen with them tonight?
What do you think of this show? Have you been watching this season? For a sneak peek at tonight's finale, read more
I may have disliked this show at first (waaaaaay back in '06!) but I ended up tuning in for its second season and somehow the characters on My Boys grew on me like barnacles. The cast members seem to be more comfortable with each other, making for a relaxed playfulness that I think was missing from this gang of buddies in season one. The last season ended with a great cliffhanger (not to mention some episodes set at a gorgeous winery that gave me total travel envy) and I'm excited to see what season three has to offer.
Plus, I've missed Jim Gaffigan on my TV every week.
I recently took part in a conference call with Jordana Spiro, who plays PJ on the show, and she promised big changes for PJ, Stephanie, and each of the "boys." She also talked about the major change we can expect to see in PJ's life — real, steady relationship with a guy.
Will you tune into My Boys tonight? To check out a clip from tonight's premiere and a four-minute video recap of the last season, read more
So I've made it clear in the past that the TBS comedy My Boys is not exactly my favorite thing ever. But it's possible that the show is growing on me. A little. Maybe. Last Summer, I went a little easier on My Boys when its second batch of episodes made me laugh harder and cringe less, and I admit I'm curious to see what happens when the show returns tonight at 9:30 p.m. EDT and PDT.
For one thing, My Boys has apparently ditched the obnoxious sports metaphors that used to pepper main character PJ's every voiceover. Now, I like sports just fine, but as a metaphor for life, the device wore thin after about four minutes. I'm thrilled to know that the writers are now letting PJ (played by Jordana Spiro) just, you know, talk. The cast was always fairly charming, but it sounds like they're now getting material that warrants good performances. And I have to give the show's marketing folks credit for coming up with a My Boys-themed Facebook application that works like that old game of MASH (as in Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House). Nothing promotes the show's "every(wo)man" image quite like dredging up my favorite game from fourth grade!
Tonight's episode picks up with PJ and a mystery date on a trip to Italy. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew is back in Chicago, getting into all sorts of shenanigans of their own without PJ to guide them. Will you be watching? To check out a promo, just read more
I got a promotional e-mail today touting the Summer programming lineups on TNT and TBS. As I scrolled through looking for a return date for The Closer (July) and a start date for Raising the Bar (September), a banner at the bottom caught my eye:
"Kyra Sedgwick, Holly Hunter, Laura San Giacomo, Jordana Spiro, Nancy Travis, Jane Kaczmarek, and Gloria Reuben are just a few of the strong women coming to TNT and TBS this summer."
And they have good reason to spotlight that: Of the five series featured in the e-mail, only one (The Bill Engvall Show on TBS) has a male character in the lead. The rest are either female-led or have women in the majority of the starring roles: My Boys on TBS and all three of TNT's dramas, The Closer, Saving Grace, and the new series Raising the Bar. And, what's more, three of those four series have leading ladies over the age of 40 — a relative rarity in Hollywood.
I'm not sure if TNT and TBS set out to become networks full of programming featuring women who are tough, quirky, and relatable (and succeeding in roles typically earmarked for men, at that), but regardless, I find it encouraging that it's happened. They aren't the only networks in this game; FX's Damages drew a ton of acclaim with Glenn Close in its leading role. I just like the fact that these networks see their roster of shows with older, female stars not as a risk but as something to be celebrated. What's your take?
The New York Giants and New England Patriots will face off this Sunday in the Super Bowl in Arizona. But if that's not your thing — and you can wrestle the remote away from the sports fan in your life — TBS is planning a lineup of Movies Women Want between 9:30 a.m. and 10 p.m.
So here's the fun debate: Are these really the movies "women want," on Super Bowl Sunday or any other day — especially given that most of you said you'd be watching the game in the first place? To see the lineup and get my take, just read more
Oh, the irony: I fast-forward through ads on my TiVo, but I love watching whole programs devoted to truly creative commercials. So I'm excited that the voting is now open for TBS' Funniest Commercials of the Year special. The show, which will air Dec. 26, features more than 50 ads from around the world, and 10 of them are up for the title of the year's funniest.
Voting is open now through Nov. 29 at VeryFunnyAds.com, a TBS site that collects the most amusing ads from around the globe. A few of them will be familiar to anyone who watched this year's Super Bowl, notably K-Fed's self-parody for Nationwide Insurance and the Bud Light hitchhiker. But I think the international ads are my favorites; I loved this commercial from Belgium in which a guy who litters becomes a human pinball, and this farting squirrel ad from the UK just has to be seen to be believed.
What would be your nominees for the funniest commercials this year?
Okay, I know that last year I kinda hated on the TBS original comedy "My Boys." A lot. And I maintain that it's obnoxious to say that being a laid-back, funny, down-to-earth girl with a few guy friends necessarily means that you can't get a boyfriend because guys are, according to this show, thoroughly turned off by confident girls who like sports. Plus, the show, all about a woman named PJ who writes for the sports section of the Chicago Sun-Times was deeply fond of using sports puns to reflect the action, which is rarely interesting and especially grating after the zillionth time ("Sometimes you just strike out!").
However, I have to admit that having seen the first few episodes of this next season, which starts tonight on TBS at 10:00 PM, the show has improved. For starters, they've given the character of Stephanie (played by Kellee Stewart), PJ's one girly friend more screen time, more dimension and far more funny lines than she ever had before, which is a pleasant surprise. I shocked myself by actually laughing out loud at some of Stephanie's lines. For another thing, they did well to bring in some new comedians, such as Nicole Sullivan who you probably know mostly from "Mad TV" and Sierra Mist commercials, and there's even a funny cameo by "30 Rock"'s Jack McBrayer in the second episode. And they did reduce the number of sports puns to a just mildly annoying degree.
I don't know that this will become one of my regular shows to catch, but I will begrudgingly cease to ridicule it quite so much. You can watch all 13 episodes of the first season on the "My Boys" website before the new season begins tonight.
