Results tagged “television”

After being hit hard with a cancellation of their series, the producers of "The Unusuals" are now on the receiving end of a lawsuit from actor Charles Buckley. The New Yorker filed a notice at the Queens Supreme Court after being injured during filming, where he was body slammed repeatedly on the concrete.

Hate all you want on Jimmy Fallon, but the guy does the best impersonation of Neil Young covering Will Smith's "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." That is a fact.

It's time for your annual subway reef moment of zen. Last November the Today Show gave us an up-close look at the watery graves that some subways will meet. Now the NY Times points out that tonight's National Geographic Ultimate Factories program visits a plant that produces the new subway cars, "telling us for almost an hour about all the welding and wiring and safety inspections that go into making the things." That's right, see the subway car that will inevitably cause you to be late for something, before it even hits the track, and way before it hits the surf.

Set your DVRs: Starting November 20th actor/student/dreamboat James Franco will be making his debut on General Hospital—which inexplicably is just way more exciting than his upcoming cameo on 30 Rock.

Yesterday afternoon the Martha Stewart dropped by the Brooklyn Flea, causing a commotion and getting vendors worked up into a tizzy. It was a good thing! Martha says she loves Brooklyn, and it seems like the feeling might be mutual... except for some who sneered, calling her entourage "fucking ridiculous." Can we just file "Martha Stewart is at my designer flea market" as a Hall o' Fame White Whine?

If you see a giant V in the sky on Friday, fear not, it's just the big wigs in Hollywood trying to get you to watch a new television show about aliens. Reportedly "The network is mum on where and when the V's will strike, but such places as the Statue of Liberty are under consideration. The skywriting will be done multiple times a day at each site until the series launch." Yes, television people, it is a great idea to "secretly" send a small aircraft spouting out gas over major landmarks in New York City.

It's been a year since Tina Fey's spot-on version of Sarah Palin hit the small screen on Saturday Night Live, and now word is she's bringing it back this season... maybe.

Earlier this year we chatted with Dr. Zizmor, the "subway dermatologist," about the television ads he ran prior to taking his campaign underground and off-screen. Now he's gone and combined the two! Warning, this jingle will get stuck in your head.

As the Hipster Grifter, Kari Ferrell, sits behind bars penning notes to NYC bloggers, her story hit the small screen in an episode of Law & Order. The episode, which aired last Friday, featured a girl named Emma with lots of similarities to our lil' Korean Abdul-Jabbar.

President Obama and citizen Letterman look like they got along famously today during the taping of tonight's show. Even though he's attained rock star status amongst many, word is that Barack didn't take his appearance to the marquee, like Sir McCartney, Phish and TV on the Radio have in the past.

He's been on TV this morning supporting his health plan. But seriously— I think we can all agree that it's in our best interest if the president is allowed to skip to the front of the swine-flu vaccine line. We must protect Obama from the pigs!

     

Oprah filmed her show in Central Park today (it's not her first time going live from New York), getting visits from Mayor Bloomberg, Mariah Carey, Hugh Jackman, Regis & Kelly, and more. Plus, she was all decked out in her Mad Men-era clothing (side effect of having Don Draper and his missus appear on your show, we suppose). The episode from uptown airs today at 4 p.m. (but you're at work, right? So you'll have to catch the re-run at 1 a.m.); the Mad Men episode airs Monday. And for all you subway readers, she picked Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan as her next book club book, though it sounds a little too intense for a commute.

Being behind the wheel of a New York City cab can likely supply you with plenty of fodder for a screenplay, especially when you're driving away from a job on Wall Street. Nearly a decade ago 45-year-old Mike Puerto quit his job trading derivatives and got his taxi license. He worked on a script for a Wall Street drama and, according to the NY Post, taped a sign behind his seat that read: "If you are a TV producer or executive, I have a pilot ready to go into production." Well, he's now got himself a producer, director of photography, agent and actors on the ready for his TV project, titled "M&A" (mergers and acquisitions). While networks expressed interest, a solid deal hasn't come through, however; so Puerto found advertisers and his plan is to buy time on Spike TV. The entourage he assembled all work for free (for now), and are convinced that Puerto is on his way to success. Paul Jarrett of Rosetta Films told the paper, "None of these people have been paid anything. It's just that Mike is such a captivating person that we keep coming back to see if he will pull all the pieces together and actually get this thing made." The sign in the cab now has this addendum: "will shortly go into production."

Tyra Banks is bringing back her talk show this Fall, and declares that this time around it will be more real than ever. Whereas her other show revolves around physical appearance, her talk show will celebrate inner and outer beauty. Today she was in Union Square taping a segment for the show wearing a bodysuit and a scarf on top of her head. (A before-stripping-down photo of Tyra, smiling with her eyes in Union Square, after the jump).

This was bound to happen, so don't pretend like you'd never hear about her again. Yes, the one and only Hipster Grifter, Kari Ferrell, has returned. She's actually probably still in Utah facing charges, but that isn't stopping the fat cats in Hollywood from capitalizing on her storyline. Gawker hears that "Law & Order has put out a confidential casting call for someone who sounds a lot like Kari Ferrell. The show is said to be seeking Asian females, 25-29, to play a con artist who claims she needs money for kidney treatments. Under the force of her irresistible charms, men fork over cash." Casting gods: please let them cast Kari herself; only one person can come up with and deliver mouth handjob lines with such effortless diction.

Dilemma! Who does one vote for in a Gwyneth Paltrow versus Real Housewife Bethenny Frankel deathmatch? The Daily News reports that Frankel, who is also a chef when she's not busy being a reality television puppet, doesn't want to see the Hollywood starlet-turned-lifestyle guru get her own cooking show; "I'd rather staple my eyelids shut than watch Gwyneth cook. [She] is afraid to [reveal] who she really is—she's so manhandled by publicists and managers. Her show would be way too boring to watch," she declared. As opposed to watching the Real Housewives of New York, which isn't boring or contrived and is just a delight for everyone watching. If you recall, Gwyneth recently roasted a chicken, which apparently put the fear into Frankel—there have been rumors that she left the Bravo show and is working on her own food series.

Reality television will soon confront its latest victim: art. Bravo is now casting for "The Untitled Art Project," which brings Sarah Jessica Parker and her production company, Pretty Matches, together with the Emmy-nominated Magical Elves ("Top Chef," "Project Runway") and Eli Holzman, to produce an hour long creative competition series among contemporary artists. It's just like how all the great artists were discovered. There will be thirteen total aspiring artists competing for a gallery show, money, and more. Each episode will have the artists creating "unique pieces highlighting art's role in everyday life" in everything from sculpture to photography. Get your portfolio together and your beret perfectly situation atop your head, the NYC casting call is July 18th and 19th at White Columns.

At the Made in NY awards last night the Mayor called the longest-running soap opera in television history, Guiding Light, a “real New York institution.” The show only recently announced its cancellation, after being on radio and television for 72 years. Bloomberg told those in attendance, “This fall, the ‘Light’ will fade after 57 wonderful years in New York City. I really hope that Phillip, Alexandra, Alan and all the Spaldings can work out their differences, that Olivia and Natalia find true love, and that we finally find out who killed Edmond! I think it was Josh—but I never liked him, anyway.” Though he claimed to be unfamiliar with the show, it sure sounds like the Mayor takes an afternoon break to watch his stories. Maybe he'll find comfort in this slideshow tracing GL's history.

Picture Kevin Bacon in a black suit, white v-neck tee underneath, walking in slow motion down an overgrown High Line. It just seems fitting, doesn't it? That must be what the folks at Sundance thought, too, because here is that exact scene as part of the channel's High Line Stories series (which is online only and premiered today).

The new Bravo housewives were unmasked earlier this week as the network aired a preview of The Real Housewives of New Jersey (watch it here). It was all very mafia mini-mall chic, to say the least. The big cameo this week was by none other than former NYC police commissioner Bernard Kerik! He now lives in Housewife territory in Franklin Lakes, N.J, and went uncredited for his scene, where he was training an attack dog in the yard of the show's Manzo family. The NY Times points out that "Mr. Manzo’s father, who weighed 350 pounds but was known as Tiny, ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Paterson before buying the Brownstone [catering hall] in the 1970s. In 1983, he was found dead in the trunk of his Lincoln Continental with four bullet wounds to his chest. The crime was never solved." Kerik actually held a fundraiser in December at the Manzo's catering hall to raise money for his legal defense as he fights a federal indictment on corruption, tax evasion and perjury charges. He'll be getting ready for his real close-up when he faces trial this October.

The Hollywood lights have been shining down on South Williamsburg a lot lately, so much so that the neighborhood is being given a three-month reprieve from the action by city officials. Several projects got the greenlight to finish up filming before being tossed out of the new no-film zone, after which they'll certainly be able to find that "gritty urban look" Williamsburg offers in other areas of New York City.

So, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Aside from the mannerisms we loved to hate when he was on SNL (talking too fast, constant fidgeting, laughing at his own jokes), how did he do on his first night filling Conan's big shoes? If you made it through the "Lick it for Ten" game, in which Our Host brings up three audience members to lick sponsor products for ten bucks, then you may have seen that the kid did alright! Yes expectations were low, but the general consensus is that Fallon is going to do his job well. You can watch the full episode here.

Another day, another Beatles anniversary! Today marks 45 years since the Fab Four's first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show (they appeared three consecutive Sundays in February of 1964, to the tune of $10,000). According to Beatles News, this first performance was "considered a milestone in American pop culture and the beginning of the British Invasion in music. The broadcast drew an estimated 73 million viewers, at the time a record for an American television program."

Screens big and small have not been kind to Staten Island. Their latest spokeswoman is yet another tanned up, curse-word spewin' young lady from the borough called Rosemarie, a contestant on MTV's "A Double Shot at Love with the Ikki Twins."

While we all wait for This Old House's first ever New York City project to air (being filmed in Brooklyn right now), we'll have to focus in on another house. The MTV Real World Brooklyn house is in Red Hook (as you already know, like it or not); this is their 3rd time filming the series in New York, but the first in the borough. While filming has ended, much of the cast (none of whom are New Yorkers) have decided to stay. Here's the first episode, which aired last night, in its entirety.

                  

Recently we had a chance to visit the Brooklyn home that is the first New York City project to be featured on This Old House. The Prospect Heights house, built in 1904 and "designed in the Renaissance Revival style by architect Axel Hedman," has its own project page on the TOH website, and before homeowners Karen Shen and Kevin Costello purchased it, the 4,000 square foot structure was a rundown boarding house. This Old House producer Deborah Hood explained why the show picked the Shen/Costello home:

At This Old House, we probably considered about a dozen properties in Brooklyn, and scouted a few in places like Boerum Hill (where I got flea bites from touring an abandoned rowhouse) and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens (where we found charming, small rowhouses protected by single-family zoning). But, ultimately, we were drawn to the neighborhood of Prospect Heights, because unlike neighboring Park Slope where most houses have already been renovated, our area still has lots of properties that need attention and preservation...

Continue reading "This Old Brooklyn House"

Stop trying to act all cool and not excited when we all know that The City premieres on MTV tonight! If you do choose to tune in, you'll find Whitney Port (pictured at the 2006 VMAs) leaving sunny California for New York City in order to work for Diane von Furstenberg, but the NY Post has it that "She doesn't really work. She is hardly ever in the office." Shocking! The show is a spin-off of The Hills, which is a spin-off of Laguna Beach, which was a spin-off of real life. Just like its predecessors, the series is taking heat for being a scripted reality show, but it's also being called out for being a little bit too L.A. and not enough NYC. However, Whitney insists she is "living in either midtown or the Gramercy area--I don't really know, to be perfectly honest. I'm in a tall building, way up high." NYMag has a lot more in a sprawling 4-page article on the series.

Picture this: Four female werewolves on the prowl (For men? For shoes? For blood?) in New York City in a new TV series called Bitches. Now imagine that this is actually real, because it is! Wired reports that the new series was greenlighted for Fox, who are cashing in on the "ancient supernatural beast" phenom (Twilight). Werewolves, vampires, whatever—mix it up with some modern day drama and you've got a hit. At least that's what writer Michael Dougherty (Superman Returns, X2: X-Men United) is hoping for. And "according to The Hollywood Reporter, the quirky urban fairy tale Bitches will be executive-produced by Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts (Pushing Daisies). So basically, picture Carrie Bradshaw with some extra facial hair?

Get ready for some high-profile headlines to be ripped from the papers for Law & Order, starting with tonight's episode about a crane accident. According to the Post, L&O doesn't really deal with "this city's crooked contractors and their shoddy half-built nightmares, sleazy inspectors and falling cranes," it just begins with a crane accident and then the investigation goes in another direction. Meanwhile, over on Page Six there's talk of (sigh) a Heath Ledger-esque Law & Order. They report that the plot "is 'supposed to be about Heath Ledger' and features a male supermodel, played by Ryan Locke, who 'has a great career and gets all the ladies.' Perhaps the eeriest comparison is to Ledger's actual death by overdose when the character 'leaves a club with a girl. They have sex and do drugs, and the next morning, his friend finds him dead.'" Next up: Joshua Walter and Gina Salamino?

Last night the 2nd episode of Top Chef New York aired, beginning with an oh-so-NY-themed Quick Fire challenge: Hot Dogs! After Padma declares that New Yorkers spend $100M a year consuming the "dish," the cheftestants were put up against the Top Dog (heh) in New York, Angelina D'Angelo (from Dominick's hot dog truck in Queens) and had 45 minutes to cook up their own recipes (which season 4 cast-off Spike says is enough time "to build a cart").