PBS Relaunching Retro Fave "Electric Company" | Newsweek Scope

Keeping Up Appearances
Joshua Alston 10/2/2009 12:00:00 AM
Late last year, Nene Leakes was evicted from her five-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot house in Duluth, Ga. According to the legal notice, she and her husband agreed to leave because they couldn't afford the rent. That would put her in good company, but the eviction was especially damaging to Leakes, because for her, living in an expensive home isn't a choice. It's a job requirement.
Fall TV Preview: EHarmony Edition
Joshua Alston 9/21/2009 12:00:00 AM
It would seem that these tough, uncertain times would be the perfect environment in which to debut escapist shows, but in fact it's been just the opposite. The new fall television slate—the most robust since the Hollywood writers' strike derailed the industry—is deeply rooted in what's going on right now, our anxiety, our fear, our toil. Last fall, the CW debuted the short-lived (and underrated) Privileged, a comedy about a young woman whisked, almost magically, from her life as a lower Manhattan plebe to a luxurious mansion in Palm Beach, where she serves as a live-in tutor for a rich family. Did I mention it was short-lived? The 2007 and 2008 shows that rooted themselves in trashy opulence (Dirty Sexy Money, Cane) or quirky otherworldliness (Pushing Daisies) are off the air, quality be damned.
Comic Relief
Ramin Setoodeh 9/12/2009 12:00:00 AM
You know the kind of comedian who takes himself so seriously he won't even smile out of character? The five performers at our annual Emmy Roundtable were—bless them—nothing like that. We asked them to wear pajamas for a curl-up-by-the-TV photo, and Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) even slipped on a pair of red fluffy slippers. "I thought of wearing a really filthy shirt," said Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men), but Toni Collette (United States of Tara) went him one better—she posed with a blow-up doll. "I love saying, 'Toni! Hey, Toni!' It feels good,' " said Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live), like some demented Valentino. They even found a way to have fun with plain old water. When one actor would say something especially funny during our conversation, Sarah Silverman (The Sarah Silverman Program) would slide over a bottle of Arrowhead like a liquid trophy—or, in the case of Parsons's dreary soliloquy about cell phones (don't ask), she took his away. So remember, future Emmy winners: if you deliver a subhumorous acceptance speech, Silverman might well come after your little gold statue, too. (Article continued below...)
Alexander Skarsgard Is a Neck Man
Joan Raymond 9/11/2009 12:00:00 AM
The only Swedish import that ever stole my heart was IKEA. OK, maybe a Volvo. But then along came Alexander Skarsgard, the vampire bad boy with a true (though a non-beating) heart in HBO's True Blood. Skarsgard plays Eric Northman, the 1,000-year-old Viking sheriff of the undead, but he might as well be named Vampire McSteamy. Do we blame Anna Paquin for secretly fantasizing about him when the sun goes down? That smoldering face. That surfer-boy hair. Those chiseled cheekbones. (Article continued below...)
House of Worship
Lisa Miller 9/8/2009 12:00:00 AM
There is a secret organization of powerful Christians in Washington. Only don't call it "secret," its defenders say. Call it "private." Or "below the radar." And it's not an organization, more like a global informal network of friends, or, as one of its leaders described it, "a group of people brought together by a common love." And please don't use the word "Christian." The common love that binds this group is the love of Jesus—the historical figure, the rabbi, the prophet, the shining example, the Son of God. All approaches to loving Jesus are fine. The Fellowship, as this group is called, has the slimmest scrap of a Web site. Nothing about its organizational structure is visible to the public: not its board of directors, nor its executive team, nor its mission statement, nor its 200 subsidiary ministries, nor its national or global membership. (For, as its surrogates tell me, there are no "members.") Outsiders and the press can be forgiven, I think, for regarding this group with suspicion.
It Was A Precedent-Setting Year For Tv
Marc Peyser 12/20/2001 12:00:00 AM
Here's a depressing thought: 2001 may be the first year in recent memory that failed to produce any break-out television shows. That's right--not a single show that debuted this year seems poised to become a top 10 hit.