BuzzSugar

Buzz News Roundup, 7/9

BuzzSugar — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:30:29 -0700

Nat is back! Joe E. Tata is returning as the Peach Pit owner for at least the pilot of the new 90210, writes the Associated Press.
According to ComingSoon, there is a modern remake of Red Dawn in the works.
Hollywood Reporter writes that Kinky Boots may be the next movie to be turned into a Broadway musical.
E! reports that Jeffrey Tambor is coming to Entourage as another fifth-season guest star.
Lil Wayne is once again topping the Billboard 200 list, Billboard reports.
NBC News is going to produce a big Baby Borrowers reunion special, writes Variety.
ComingSoon reports that the comic Elfquest will head to the big screen.
Katherine Heigl's husband, musician Josh Kelley, might be the latest star to start producing TV shows, Entertainment Weekly reports.

First Look: The Baby Borrowers

BuzzSugar — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:30:38 -0700

Ever since I proclaimed it a Bad Idea of the Week way back in March of '07, I've been utterly fascinated with NBC's show The Baby Borrowers, which is finally set to premiere next Wednesday, June 25. The show takes teenage couples and essentially asks them to become parents overnight, as they care for babies, toddlers, preteens, teenagers, and, eventually, senior citizens. (Why not toss in a 47-year-old in the throes of a midlife crisis, while they're at it?)

The show is based on a British series of the same name, and I'm told that over there, it was a pretty educational and informative show. But from watching the previews for the NBC version, I can't tell what kind of tone the U.S. version of the show is going to have. Am I meant to laugh at these crazy kids and their predicament? Feel sorry for them? Be angry on behalf of the actual families of the kids and adults they're caring for? Take it as a poignant appreciation of the life cycle? The moral still seems to be "hey, kids, life sucks" - and watching even a single episode of that seems like it would be more harrowing than entertaining.

The show was originally supposed to air back in February, when our own LilSugar got freaked out by the concept. But the premiere got changed to the Summer, and so I'm wondering: If you've seen the previews, how do you feel about the show? To watch a trailer and a couple of shorter clips, just read more.

Photo courtesy of NBC

Here's What We'll Be Watching on TV This Summer

BuzzSugar — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:30:35 -0700

ABC, CBS, and Fox have joined NBC in releasing their Summer schedules in recent days, and while we're still waiting on The CW, this already gives us a pretty good sense of how the season will look. There's a lot of reality, of course, but at least one cool scripted series is also on the schedule. Here are some of the goodies:

Swingtown, the CBS series about '70s swinger couples, will finally see the light of day! It's scheduled to air Thursday nights at 10 starting June 5.
So You Think You Can Dance will be the centerpiece of Fox's Summer schedule again (yay!), following last year's pattern of performance shows on Wednesdays and results shows on Thursdays. The show will also have a two-night premiere starting Thursday, May 22, and continuing the following Wednesday.
NBC is touting this as its All-American Summer, thanks to the August broadcast of the Summer Olympics. Apparently, a big part of that is American Gladiators, which returns May 12.
The High School Musical reality show, now called High School Musical: Summer Session, will begin airing July 20, taking over both Sundays and Mondays for three weeks and ultimately airing on Mondays until the grand-prize winner is chosen.
ABC's two big reality franchises, The Bachelorette and The Mole, both kick off in May: The Bachelorette starts May 19, while the new edition of The Mole starts May 26.
Last Comic Standing, meanwhile, returns to NBC May 22.

As for other reality shows, there's a ridiculous-sounding crop in the works - many of which were in my spot the fake pilot quiz. To check out a list, just read more.

CBS has Greatest American Dog (dogs and their owners competing on various tasks), Million Dollar Password (like the old-school game show but with celebrities and Regis Philbin as host), and Jingles (contestants have to write jingles pitching products, sports teams, or entertainment options).
ABC has Wipeout (the falling-down game show), I Survived a Japanese Game Show (which ships contestants to Japan and judges them on how best they adapt to the culture, which just sounds odd), and Dance Machine (which pits regular people against each other in "dance-offs" to popular songs).
NBC has two we've already talked about, but they're so crazy I have to mention them again: The Baby Borrowers (teenage couples are entrusted with raising children) and Celebrity Circus (exactly what it sounds like). Luckily, ABC has canceled its own celeb-circus show.

Photos courtesy of CBS, NBC, and ABC, Inc.

Bad Idea of the Week: "The Baby Borrowers"

BuzzSugar — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 07:00:57 -0700

Some ideas are so jaw-droppingly bad, they make fun of themselves, and this new reality show from NBC is one of them. Called "The Baby Borrowers" and based on a BBC series of the same name, the premise involves five teenage couples being made to take care of babies, toddlers, pre-teens, and aging grandparents over the course of a month. I can't possibly be funnier than NBC's own press release, so here are excerpts:

As the five young participating couples are asked to literally grow up overnight, their journey begins when they are given a quiet suburban home and attend pre-natal classes as the "mother" wears a simulated "empathy" belly to prepare them for the arrival of their "baby."

When a real one appears at their door - courtesy of five real mothers who each entrusts her infant to one of the five couples - the fumbling new teen parents are in for three long, arduous days that make chilling out a distant memory. They must stick to rigid routines (under supervision), handle the feeding chores, diaper duty and crying jags that might be shared by both baby and teens.

Five real mothers are going to give their babies to some teenage fools surrounded by video cameras for three days? That sounds like a surefire way to irrevocably screw up your child. Could you imagine showing your son or daughter that video later? "Look, honey! That's when your fake mommy put Sprite in your bottle!"

There's a lot more, so read more

Back to the press release:

After the first three days, the late-teen couples will bid bye-bye to the baby and will receive a toddler as their fast-forward adult life progresses. As a result, they will have to cope with the "Terrible Twos," pouty tantrums and other messes for three more days. One of the couples will have to care for two siblings while another will have to handle three - and all of the twosomes will be given family pets to add to their responsibilities.

Do you think the pets will be goldfish or, like, a pony? It looks like the BBC kids got stuck with a goat and a ferret.

And finally:

After the three days, the weary couples must now face the reality of parenting a sassy pre-teen - or "tweener" - thereby perhaps providing them with a mirror image of their own recent relationship with their own parents. To complete the cycle of life, the couples are graced with the opportunity to care for an elderly grandparent, who will represent what might be in store for them in the distant future.

Aside from all the legal and ethical issues here, apparently the moral is that life sucks. "Hey, kids! First you get fat and pregnant, then you deal with children who spit up and poop on everything and sass back to you. Isn't growing up great?" Yeesh.

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