BuzzSugar

Live (or Almost Live) From the Set of Glee!

BuzzSugar — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:30:45 -0700

If I was excited for Glee after just a few clips and the first episode, I'd say that excitement has now reached DEFCON 1 after visiting the set. I traveled to LA on Wednesday to hang out with the cast of this upcoming Fox comedy from Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy - and lucky for me it was a performance day.

All the actors playing glee club members were on hand to perform their routine to a Queen song (over and over again - oh, the life of an actor). The performance, as you might expect, included a lot of choreographed dance movies, and let me tell you: it is heaven. You'd think that after watching the same routine performed at least eight times, I would be a little jaded, but I'm not. I'm just even more excited for you all to see this show, and I can't believe nobody thought of this idea before.

A few other tidbits from my set visit:

The actors don't perform the songs live, which means they're not only learning their lines and up to three dance routines an episode, but they're also booking studio time to record their songs. It's a lot of work, but they all seem to be loving it.
I asked anyone who would listen if a soundtrack was on the way, and most responded it was definitely something they're thinking about. I'm really going to want these arrangements after they air.
The super-cool Jane Lynch invited a group of us into her trailer. She's the tallest woman I've ever met. She also gets to wear many colorful track suits when in character as the surly cheerleading coach, which is hilarious.

I have so much more to share with you, so check back over the coming weeks for my interviews with the stars of Glee!

Photo courtesy of Fox

A Visit to the Scrumptious Set of Pushing Daisies

BuzzSugar — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:30:27 -0700

By far, my favorite moment of the TCA press tour this Summer was getting to wander around the set of Pushing Daisies, which returns tonight for its second season. As lovely and fanciful as the Daisies world looks on television, it's even more wonderful in person, filling up two full sound stages on the Warner Bros. lot. The entire set wasn't open, but I did get to slide into a Pie Hole booth, check out the aunts' stuffy living room, and see the confessional in the nunnery where Olive will be starting the new season. To hear what the insanely detailed rooms looked like up close, just read on:

The Pie Hole
It makes total sense that the Pie Hole set doesn't have a top; how else would they get the cameras in for those overhead shots? But it was still funny to see this huge, looming pie crust edge with nothing in the middle, like a Gorg had come along and scooped out a bite. Inside, it's a surprisingly roomy restaurant, with cushy booths, lights shaped like giant cherries, and a spacious kitchen with a walk-in fridge (no bodies this time; I checked).

In one corner, candy jars and waffle cones are piled high; in another, there's an antique mirror where diners can check their hair on the way out. If you want a slice of pie at the Pie Hole, it'll cost you $5.95, but there's a pretty wide range of choices (four berry, Dutch apple, strawberry rhubarb, lemon meringue, sweet potato, three plum, peach, and derby). And if for some reason pie's not your thing, their butter pecan ice cream is apparently also world-famous.

To read about Emerson's office, the nunnery, and the aunts' place, just read more.

Emerson Cod's Office
With its hardwood floors, big metal safe, and framed artwork, Emerson's office looks ornate at first . . . until you notice all the knitting. There's a basket stuffed with yarn and needles just to one side of his desk chair, and he's clearly put it to use - on his desk, there's a knit cozy for his tissue box and another for his coffee mug. The man does love his money: a frame on the wall holds several old bills. In another frame, there's a certificate of proficiency from the Small Arms Firing School.

The Aunts' House
Here's one rule for Lily and Vivian's house: If it can be covered with fabric, it is, and the more layers the better. This was the tiniest and most crowded set we visited, stuffed with furniture upholstered heavily in velvet and brocade. It's the sort of place that always feels dusty no matter how clean it is, and there's barely room for two people to move around, much less a full cast and camera crew (one production guy saw us emerge and said, "Now you know why every time we shoot in there, the characters are sitting down"). Outside, there's a garden hose and blooming flowers; inside, it's just as dingy as it looks on screen, but purposefully so. Knick-knacks and birdcages are stacked everywhere - or, rather, everywhere there's not already furniture, as they've somehow crammed three couches, six armchairs, and a daybed into the tiny space.

The Roof
I didn't actually get to climb up onto Chuck's beekeeping roof, but it was one of my favorite corners of the whole set, with a sweeping blue screen representing the sky taking up the better part of two walls. A dozen gold beehives take up most of the rooftop, interspersed with pink, purple, and orange flowers. A bunch of old TV antennas loom over the roof, artfully tangled.

The Nunnery
We haven't actually seen this set in action yet, but just know this: It's spectacular. It's the largest of all the rooms I saw on the set, with several components: a large, monk-like dining hall with spartan tables, wooden chairs, and religious paintings lining the walls; a cavernous sanctuary with huge banks of candles along the wall (and several melting at the altar); and a confessional booth draped with thick, red, velvet curtains. The whole thing is decorated in shades of orange, red, gold, and gray, with a fleur de lis theme. I can't wait to see how it pops on screen.

A Heart-Pounding Trip to the Set of ER

BuzzSugar — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:30:34 -0700

The second we walk through the hospital doors, my palms start to sweat. Then I see the table stacked high with boxes of alcohol swabs, and then the rubber glove dispensers hanging from the walls, and then the blue-cloth-covered gurneys, and I swear my heart skips a beat. "This is definitely County General," someone says. And it is: I'm on the set of ER, hearing about the show's 15th and final season as part of the TCA press tour. But I might as well be in a real hospital, considering how anxious and uncomfortable I feel.

It's a testament to the show's property master - but also more than a little creepy - that the County General set on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank feels exactly like a somewhat run-down county hospital in the Midwest. The floor tile is all pink linoleum; the walls and blinds are pale blue and seafoam green. The ceiling is low (low enough to make me feel claustrophobic, anyway), the plastic chairs in the waiting room look just as hard and unforgiving as real hospital chairs, and even the lighting tiles above my head are yellowed and flickering convincingly with age.

After 15 years of filming on the set, "it doesn't take a lot to make it look like crap," says Christopher Chulack, one of the show's executive producers, as a heart monitor flashes in the background and a half-filled bag of saline dangles from an IV pole over his shoulder. "It's worn out pretty good. We put a lot of effort into that - we take pride in keeping it aged."

To hear more about what County General looks like up close, and to see pictures of the ER cast from the past 14 years, just read more.

The County General world we see on TV, from the sliding curtains between the hospital beds to the long hallway that countless residents have urgently pushed gurneys through, is an exact replica of the hospital in East LA where John Wells and his crew shot the ER pilot back in 1994. When the pilot became a series, everything from that hospital had to be matched exactly on the set, from the color of the linens to the placement of the beds. (The only change: The hallways are two feet wider for easier filming.) And, except for the introduction of some new medical equipment (slowly - since it's a county hospital, "we get to pick up the technology two or three years after it comes into the marketplace," Wells says), it's stayed that way ever since.

Up close, it's insanely detailed, from the colorful stickers on the individual containers holding various medical implements to the post-it notes hanging from the big, translucent case board that features prominently in so many episodes. (One reads "CBC" - perhaps a reminder for some actor who somehow doesn't have the hang of yelling "CBC, chem 7, STAT!!" by now?) I spy a few members of the press team trying out the hospital beds, but no way am I going anywhere near them; it's a short leap from there to Dr. Tony Gates shooting me up with a syringe full of something. (Now, if you could get Clooney . . . )

What's going to happen to all the medical equipment when the show wraps up its run this coming season?

"I'm opening up my own clinic over in East LA, behind the laundromat," quips property master Rick Kerns. "You want an ultrasound?"

Does it work?

"Sure!" he replies, grinning. I feel my heart skip again.

View 14 Photos ›

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Television

Hints at What's Next on "Heroes"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 06:00:00 -0700

The Bennets' new home wasn't the only spot I got to tour on the set of "Heroes" at the TCA press tour. As I wandered through Isaac's studio, Mohinder's apartment, and an Irish pub, cast members - including my tour guides, Hayden Panettiere and Zachary Quinto - delivered a few hints about what's going to happen when season two begins in September. To hear what they had to say, read more

At the start of the season, there will be two parallel time lines: one four months after the outer space explosion that ended the first season and one 400 years before. According to Masi Oka, Hiro is sent back in time, and his story line for "a handful of episodes" will take place in feudal Japan.
Dania Ramirez is joining the cast as Maya Herrera, who - according to an NBC press release - is "plagued by a threatening ability" that drives both her and her twin brother (played by Shalim Ortiz) to cross from the Dominican Republic to the United States in search of help. When the season begins, Maya's story will be picked up as she's on the run from the cops in Central America.
One of the show's standing sets is an Irish pub, complete with a fire roaring in the hearth and display cases with advertisements for McFarlane ale and McCourt Whiskey. This will most likely tie into the storyline of new cast member Holt McCallany who plays Ricky, the leader of a group of Irish thugs.
Is it true that Ali Larter's character, Niki, won't be conjuring her alter ego by looking in mirrors anymore? "I hear that too," Larter said, "but again, you never know with this show." Last season, she said, "we kind of indulged ourselves in being able to explore those two different characters, and now it's time for me to kind of focus on one and the development of my powers." She said Niki's story would be moving away from her family dynamic and become more linked with the larger plot of the show.
Speaking of Niki, Leonard Roberts, who plays D.L., wasn't on the panel, and his bio wasn't included in the packet NBC gave reporters. Nonetheless, creator Tim Kring said we shouldn't read too much into that and wouldn't say whether Niki would be a widow next season.
Isaac may be dead, but we haven't necessarily seen all we'll see of his artwork. Artist Tim Sale, who created Isaac's paintings, confirmed that he is doing work for season two.
In the four episodes the cast had filmed at the time of the set tour, Mohinder had already been in three countries, Sendhil Ramamurthy said. And presumably, none of them are the United States, as he said he's yet to be in a scene with Hayden Panettiere.
Hayden, meanwhile, was mum on the subject of Claire's new boyfriend, though she did offer that the whole season would be about "what happens when extraordinary people try to be ordinary."
I completely missed this, but some eagle-eyed reporters spotted what looked like a young girl's living space inside the set of Mohinder's apartment. Is that the new home of Molly? Nobody would say for sure.

Source

Inside the Bennets' Home with HRG

BuzzSugar — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:30:03 -0700

It would have been exciting enough to wander alone through Claire's new home on the "Heroes" set. But it was far better for my tour guide to be Jack Coleman, aka Mr. Bennet, aka HRG. He led a group of reporters through the airy, spacious, well-decorated house during a set visit at the TCA press tour, artfully dodging questions about where exactly we were.

"Let's just say it's not where the old house was," Coleman said.

OK, then. Is it in a different time zone?

"A different time zone is very possible."

A sunny climate?

"You're killing me."

All we know for sure is that the Bennets have indeed relocated since, you know, that whole episode when Ted-the-radioactive-guy kinda ruined the Bennets' Texas home and made Claire's face melt temporarily. The new home, decorated almost entirely in shades of blue, brown and black, has a large triangular window, potted trees in the corners, glass jars of rice and lentils in the kitchen, and a walk-up pathway lined with slightly trampled Astroturf. There are fewer pictures of Mr. Muggles in this house, though Coleman assured us the dog has not been forgotten. And though we're not quite sure what Mr. Bennet's plans are for the season, even Coleman had to admit that the home looks pretty permanent.

One reporter pointed triumphantly at the flowering bougainvillea in the back yard - yes, there was a back yard, complete with patio furniture - as a dead giveaway that the Bennets were in California (and that's what a little bit of casting news indicated to us, too).

"I don't know," Coleman teased back. "We might be in the Mediterranean."

Source

FlashForward Breakdown, "The Gift"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:30:48 -0800

On this week's episode of FlashForward, we get some of those big payoffs that Sonya Walger promised. While the main characters' most important relationships grow more tense, the FBI agents learn more about the blue-hand situation, and the end of the episode has two very big twists.

There's plenty of excitement to discuss, so to get into it, just read more.

Call me Al: We don't learn much about Al in the first handful of episodes of the season, but boy do we get an eyeful and an earful this week. Turns out Al's flash-forward is a lot more jarring than just a dead bird - it's followed up with a phone call revealing that a still-mysterious chain of events ends in Al "accidentally" killing a mother of two. Throughout the episode Al seems to have a laid-back, collected demeanor (even when he opts in for a game of Russian roulette), but inside he's a mess. In the end, Al is so overcome with grief about having a death on his hands, that he decides to "change the game" and commits suicide. I have to admit, as heartbreaking as that scene is, I was kind of glad Al went through with it - just to prove that the flash-forwards aren't necessarily the future. Everything is changed now, the paths can be adjusted, and both Mark and Demetri realize this as they head home to their significant others. Now that they believe the visions can be adjusted, I can't wait to see what else they try to do to throw their visions off course.

My blue heaven: Following up on Demetri and Al's scavenger hunt to find the "blue hands," the fun continues this week as the FBI agents discover that the blue hands are actually a "death club," with meetings set up all over the country for people like Demetri who didn't see a flash-forward ("living ghosts"). It kind of reminded me of Fight Club, though Mark defines it as a "book club with bullets." The guys are hilarious in their street clothes headed to the party, though what they find inside is pretty horrific. After a quick game of Russian roulette, the guys enter what can only be defined as a torture den - people who believe they are going to die doing all kinds of creepy things to each other. I have to say, if I was one of those "living ghosts" I think I'd either be trying to do all the fun things I never got to do before - or I'd just want to get it over with. Why anyone would want to be tortured when he or she is already tormented by the idea of their inevitable death is beyond me.

Blast from the past: Aaron gets a visit from Mike, a friend and solider who served at the same time as Aaron's daughter Tracy. Mike passes on a Swiss Army knife to Aaron, a good-luck charm that Tracy wanted her dad to have should anything happen to her. Aaron is overjoyed since the knife also appeared in his vision, though Mike isn't exactly receptive to the notion that Tracy is still alive. He explains to Aaron that he watched Tracy die (though hello! He didn't even check to see if she was breathing), but surprise! Tracy is sitting in Aaron's kitchen at the end of the episode.

Other plot points:

As tensions rise between Demetri and Zoey, Demetri finally admits to Zoey that he didn't have a flash-forward and is going to die. Zoey refuses to accept it, insisting that should could feel Demetri in her vision and that nothing's been decided yet. Demetri seems skeptical about choosing Zoey's side to "hope" for the best, but after Al's suicide, he seems to have warmed up to the idea that he can change his fate.

Like Demetri, Al's death is a wake-up call for Mark. After suffering problems with Olivia (how sad is it when Charlie catches him crying?) he runs home and embraces her sweetly.

Instead of helping out at the church, Nicole lands a gig volunteering at Olivia's hospital. We learn that she speaks Japanese pretty will, and now is helping Bryce try to find the mysterious Japanese woman from his vision. Will this somehow lead to Nicole's scary vision? Is she sticking her nose where it doesn't belong?

What did you think of this week's episode? Do you think other characters will try to "change the game," too?

FlashForward Breakdown, "137 Sekunden"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:00:46 -0700

This week's episode of FlashForward isn't exactly action-packed, but we do finally meet a few significant others - including Demetri's fiancee, Zoe - and get a bit more character insight and some clues about the blackout. Not to mention the introduction of one creepy former Nazi.

It wasn't my favorite of the first three episodes, but this show is still keeping me on the edge of my seat. Would ABC just pick up the full season already? To break it all down, just read more.

Did Mark and Janis get played?
The focal point of this week's episode is wrapped up in Guyer, a former Nazi who's imprisoned in Germany but sees his flashforward as a bargaining chip for freedom. When Mark hears that he makes an appearance in Guyer's vision, he and Janis soon square off about whether or not his "information" is worth setting a Nazi free. In the end, Guyer's biggest revelation is that the crows seem to have blacked out and died at the same time as the human race did. Janis and Mark are disappointed at first, until Mark realizes that this isn't the first time crows have "blacked out." Last week there was talk of pigeons, now crows. Could the mysterious blackouts be all wrapped up in birds?
Did Zoe really see Demetri in her flashforward?
Yay! This week we finally get to meet Demetri's fiancee, Zoe (Gabrielle Union). Am I the only one who is loving the couples on this show? Mark and Olivia are often very sweet together, but I'm also digging Demetri and Zoe's younger love. When Zoe describes her wedding day flashforward to Demetri, she seems totally confident that he is there - but does she actually see him, or just assume as much? While some of the other visions seem hard to believe given the six-month interim period (Olivia sleeps with a new man, boyfriend-less Janis is already pregnant) - this one takes the cake for me. If Demetri is really murdered, could his fiancee recover and find a new man to wed that quickly? I'm banking on the glimmer of hope that this means Demetri can overturn his fate.
Is Tracy alive or not?
Determined to get to the bottom of the veracity of his flashforward, Aaron pays a visit to his ex-wife, hoping to get her permission to exhume their daughter's body for DNA. We see that Aaron's not the only one who's been deeply impacted by his daughter's death, though Katie still refuses to sign the affidavit. Eventually, Aaron gets around it and has Demetri dig up the body - though the DNA is a match, meaning that Tracy really is dead. So, is Aaron lying or is it possible that his vision may not come true after all? I'm wondering if this could be a sign that some of the flashforwards come true and others don't? Though, I have a feeling that we'll still see Aaron heading to Afghanistan sometime soon.

Other points:

Nicole the babysitter is still MIA (perhaps spending some time in that other life of hers). I'm dying to know what she saw, so hopefully she comes back soon.

Um, isn't Dominic Monaghan supposed to be on the show? Let's add him to the list of people we want to see next week.

If all the crows die in the flashforward, what about the other animals? Is there going to be a tie-in to that kangaroo we saw hopping around?

Is Demetri going to report Jerome Murphy and his bong-hitting ways? I totally would!

So are you still lovin' FlashForward, or are you losing interest? Which of the visions are you most curious about?