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Biggest Headlines of '08: 90210 Gets a Spinoff

BuzzSugar — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 09:30:03 -0800

Lots of remakes were announced this year, but maybe none was crazier than the CW trying a new take on the teen classic Beverly Hills, 90210. The news about the spinoff was one of the first new shows to be announced after the writers' strike, and at first, it seemed like everything was full of promise. The man behind the spinoff was Rob Thomas of Veronica Mars fame, and the first descriptions of the characters got us pretty excited to see who would play the key roles.

The casting news came fast and furious, and we hung on every bit, from the picks of a Degrassi star and Lucille Bluth to the return of Jennie Garth and - probably the biggest news of all - Shannen Doherty as Brenda. In general, we were pretty pumped to see what would come of the remake. Even after Thomas left the show, the news seemed good: the new showrunners had worked on another favorite, Freaks and Geeks.

To relive what happened next, just read more.

We got our first look at the show in May, and in July, I spent some time with Shenae Grimes, Tristan Wilds, and even Joe E. Tata as Nat (who kissed me!). With the first promos and photos, our collective excitement was closer to a 9 than a 0.

But then the premiere date came, and the two-hour episode was not the amazing piece of TV we'd been hoping for. In the immediate aftermath, my expectations were exceeded, but as the weeks went on, odd plot twists and a lack of characters we loved had us falling out of love with the show. Hope is not lost, though: I still think the show can be fixed, and with a new executive producer on board, I'm curious to see how things shape up for '09. The CW is certainly hoping this spinoff will be a success - it's even contemplating adding a Melrose Place remake, too.

Photos courtesy of The CW and Source

Biggest Headlines of '08: Female-Driven Movies Break Box Office Records

BuzzSugar — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:30:46 -0800

Guess what, Hollywood: Women like movies, too. 2008 has been a good year for proving that women can be a powerful force when it comes to box office dollars. The Sex and the City Movie was a huge deal to fans of the HBO show and many other female moviegoers who appreciated a female-driven movie they could go out to see with girlfriends. It seems like there's a new action/superhero flick every week or so with a male protagonist and some peripheral women in girlfriend/wife/damsel in distress roles. With Sex and the City, we got four female protagonists - and ones who are approaching middle age, no less. The ladies, they came out in droves to see this movie, resulting in record-breaking box office sales for R-rated comedies, romantic comedies and for movies carried by women.

For more on that other movie with a huge female fan base, read more.

Twilight opened to the roar of loyal fans of Stephenie Meyer's book series, a fan base consisting almost entirely of young women. The movie's box office take its first weekend was the highest ever for a female director, and its $70 million even surpassed SATC's opening weekend gross of $57 million. Fanboys have always been little gold mines when it comes to ticket sales, but Twilight's success soundly proved that fangirls are just as powerful.

In 2007, Warner Bros. executive Jeff Robinov allegedly said he wanted to avoid movies with female leads altogether because they hadn't been paying off at the box office (Jodi Foster's The Brave One and Nicole Kidman's The Invasion were used as examples of lady-driven flops). So while SATC and Twilight weren't totally among my favorite movies of the year, I've enjoyed seeing Robinov proven wrong.

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Biggest Headlines of '08: Grey's Anatomy Goes Crazy

BuzzSugar — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:30:25 -0800

Another year, another bunch of on- and off-set drama at Grey's Anatomy. This year, the show really took things to a new level, with stars complaining about their material, sudden departures, and the return of a ghostly lover. Can you handle a flashback through the twists and turns of the year? To relive the highlights of this biggest headline of '08, just hit "Start."

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Biggest Headlines of '08: The Battle For Project Runway

BuzzSugar — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:30:38 -0800

Project Runway was the tentpole show of Bravo, the series that birthed a million spin-offs (Top Chef, Shear Genius) and became a cultural phenomenon. There was no reason to think anything would change - until April, when we first saw the shocking announcement that Project Runway now belonged to Lifetime.

It turns out the announcement of the Weinstein Company's deal with Lifetime was a wee bit premature - or at least naive of the legal battle that was to come. More than eight months later, the fate of Runway remains up in the air, after lawsuits and counter-lawsuits, and the current expectation is that Runway will be grounded for months.

The legal nitty-gritty has given us some funny revelations, like Harvey Weinstein's "five true friends" speech and the sullying of Meredith Baxter Birney's good name. But there's some serious stuff here, too - or, at least, as serious as any battle over a fashion-related reality TV show could be. Episodes for an upcoming season six, produced by Real World producers Bunim-Murray and not original producers Magical Elves, have been filmed, but there's no telling if or when or where they'll air.

A judge initially ruled against the Weinstein Company and said Lifetime couldn't air Runway or any planned spin-offs. But Weinstein is still challenging the ruling, and Lifetime has now filed a suit of its own. With no end in sight, and many of you saying you wouldn't watch more Lifetime even if they did have Runway, a lawsuit isn't the only thing that could be lost - Runway's audience could flee, too.

Check out FabSugar for her take on the Project Runway drama.

Photo courtesy of Bravo

Biggest Headlines of '08: The Dark Knight's Insane Success

BuzzSugar — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:33:58 -0800

This month, as part of my Best of 2008 coverage, I'm going to look back at some of the entertainment world's big headlines. The first one on my list was the writers' strike. Today I'm going back to the year's biggest hit movie: The Dark Knight.

The release of The Dark Knight was pretty much all people could talk about for months in the film world. It seemed like every week there was another image or clip or new trailer for this thing. I wondered at the time if the movie could live up to all the excitement - and all the positive early buzz. To my surprise, it exceeded all expectations.

The Dark Knight is one of the greatest rarities in Hollywood: Critically adored and fully embraced by audiences. So fully embraced, in fact, it broke all sorts of records at the box office. It's the full package - earning not only an outrageous amount of money, but plenty of award buzz for everyone from composer Hans Zimmer (whose musical creations still make my pulse race whenever I hear them), to director Christopher Nolan, to the actors, particularly Heath Ledger for his disturbing depiction of the Joker. And of course, adding an even deeper level of drama to the whole production was Ledger's untimely death months before the release of the film. His final major performance was of the dark, sinister Joker, which is all the eerier when thinking of the tragic ending of Ledger's young life. His death lends a poignancy to both the role itself and the fact that Ledger received overwhelming praise for this performance - accolades he'll never hear.

The movie as a whole is magnificently entertaining, proved insanely lucrative for the studio, and had real-life drama attached to it - all of which makes The Dark Knight one of the most powerful pieces of pop culture this year.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Biggest Headlines of '08: The Writers' Strike Slows Down Hollywood

BuzzSugar — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:30:29 -0800

This month, as part of my Best of 2008 coverage, I'm going to look back at some of the entertainment world's big headlines. First up: the Writers Guild of America strike.

Though the strike started in November of 2007, it wasn't until early '08 that we really started to feel the effects. While the year started on a promising note - all of the late-night TV hosts returned to their shows on Jan. 2, with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert following soon after - the TV networks quickly started running out of new episodes, dooming us to week after week of repeats and reality shows. Check out this What to TiVo entry from January. It was pretty bleak!

Soon after actors announced they wouldn't attend the Golden Globes, NBC canceled the ceremony and replaced it with a news conference-style broadcast. The result was widely regarded as a disaster, with fewer than 6 million people tuning in.

In late January, after 12 weeks of striking, writers and producers tentatively started speaking to each other again, and the two sides drafted a new contract in early February. On Feb. 12, the strike was officially over, clearing the way for TV and movie writers to get back to work and for major award shows like the Oscars to proceed as usual. By late February, scripted TV was returning, with most shows back on the air by early April. But it hasn't been smooth sailing. To see how the strike is still messing with our entertainment options, just read more.

We heard early on that the strike could shake up TV for years to come, and that became clear when the networks announced their Fall schedules with fewer new shows. NBC made the most dramatic move by announcing its shows early and not ordering many pilots. ABC decided to keep many of its Fall '07 shows (including Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money) off the air in order to "relaunch" them in the Fall. Most of HBO's series were delayed till 2009. Some of you said you'd watch less TV than before the strike, and some of you broke up with a show.

TV felt the aftershocks most strongly, but movies were affected, too. Maybe the biggest example was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which had its release date moved from November '08 to July '09 in part because of the strike.

This Fall, many shows struggled to find an audience, especially the "relaunched" shows that many of you dropped - and which are now not being picked up for new seasons. But January '09 will see the return of many of the shows pushed back because of the strike, so maybe we'll soon be able to put it all behind us (barring an actors' strike, of course). And hey, at least a few good things came out of the strike - like an outpost for independently produced TV online, dubbed Strike.tv.

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