Eureka – Water water everywhere
It was a bit of a rough week in Eureka. For me, “Shower The People” unfortunately had more misses than hits. The potential was there, but nothing seemed to really work. The idea behind the compressible water was good, but the case it was key to wasn’t all that exciting. Billy Campbell made an appearance as Dr. Manlius, which felt like they didn’t have the time to do what was originally intended. Henry struggled with losing Kim 2.0, and that was an awful lot like what we’ve already seen him go through. And we’re back to the Carter and Allison shenanigans, which is working on my last “F Moonlighting” nerve.
The Week Ahead – Earth almost dies, Eureka, Entourage, and a tribute to Billy Mays
Where the hell have I been? How have you been watching television without me? I worked up this elaborate excuse to justify the absence of this column over the past several weeks including reanimated raccoon corpses and a bizarre Bollywood musical number but I burned myself on a smoke bomb and I feel too lame to lie to you all like that.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
- Discovery’s Pitchmen pays tribute to possibly the greatest pitchman of all time, Billy Mays, with a special on Thursday at 9 PM.
- The rebranding of Sci Fi commences on Tuesday with Warehouse 13 debuting on “SyFy” with a two-hour bow. It’s got two secret service agents re-assigned to a giant warehouse of mysterious artifacts, and they’re charged with bringing in more.
- VH1 debuts The Great Debate in daily fashion (Monday – Friday at 10 PM). The show examines such critical questions as Stones or Beatles, and Ginger or Mary Ann? And since it’s VH1 that means talking heads arguing it out.
- Since I’ve been gone (raccoons!), I didn’t tell you about The Philanthropist, but it’s actually a pretty good show so far. This week, Wednesday at 10 PM, Teddy (the good guy) takes on a sex trafficking ring and helps out Neve Campbell. Did I mention Neve was a cast regular?
- They’re back! Get ready for the new Big Brother onslaught with foul language, weird challenges and as little clothing as CBS can get away with. Night vision camera commences Thursday and Sunday (this week) at 8 PM.
- It’s a double dose of Samantha Who? as ABC picks up the pace to burn off the last of these episodes on Thursday at 8 PM. We might get two more later in the month and that’s it.
- Did youse not get enough of The Real Housewives of New Joisey. Did youse expect more yelling and high class broads. Bravo’s got ya covered with “The Lost Footage” Thursday at 9 PM.
- NBC follows up ABC’s Impact, about an asteroid hitting the moon putting it on a collision course with Earth, with Meteor, about a meteor on a collision course with Earth. I guess pick your celestial doomsday body? (Sunday, 9 PM).
CliqueClack’s updated summer guide to the good cable and bad network shows
It’s summertime, summertime, sum-, sum-, summertime! The weather is getting warmer, the pants are getting shorter, and the beaches invite us to bask on their warm sands. Oh, and it’s also the end of the 2008-09 season and the beginning of summer replacements.
Now, now, calm down! It’s not all doom and gloom. Well, okay, it’s pretty gloomy over in legacy network land. In the land of cable it’s another story. The summer is the time to shine for networks like TNT, FX, and USA. And, as the years roll along, more and more quality programs and stars are making their way to cable for viewers to absorb during those hot, humid nights. Eventually, Jay Leno will have to cover all three primetime hours on NBC.
Since the folks here at CliqueClack want you to be fully aware of the good and bad coming to your flat screen over the next few weeks (for selfish reasons, of course – in order for you to read and comment on our posts), we’re providing an updated version of the summer schedule we released back in April. As usual, dates and times can change. So, be flexible. I mean, it’s summer after all.
Casting Clack – Law and Order, Gossip Girl, and 90210
With its “Casting Clack” post, CliqueClack brings you a summary of the TV casting news released throughout the week, be it the addition of a series regular, a new recurring cast member, a guest star, or even someone making a cameo.
Be warned, the casting news after the jump may contain slight spoilers about the roles the actors will play.
This week, we have casting news for: Heroes, True Blood, Numb3rs, Eleventh Hour, 90210, Brothers & Sisters, Eureka, and many more.
Weekly casting roundup: week of October 12
Heather McComb
With its “Weekly Casting Roundup,” CliqueClack brings you a summary of the TV casting news released throughout the week, be it the addition of a series regular, a new recurring cast member, a guest star, or even someone making a cameo.
Be warned, the casting news after the jump may contain slight spoilers about the roles the actors will play.
This week, we have casting news for the following TV series: Bones, Brothers & Sisters, CSI: New York, Eureka, Gossip Girl, Monk, My Name Is Earl, NCIS, Numb3rs, One Tree Hill, Private Practice, Privileged, and Pushing Daisies.
Behind the scenes at Eureka
Sci Fi
One of the really intriguing things about twitter is that there are a number of television people, both in front of and behind the camera, using the service. That’s how I know, for example, that CliqueClack pal Wil Wheaton is in an upcoming episode of Criminal Minds. Not only that, but he also really enjoyed his time there.
One of the more available shows is Eureka. Over the course of their just finished mini season I noticed a few tweets from show-runner Charlie Craig that hinted at just what their production was like. You’d find Charlie tweeting about cutting the new episode just a couple days before it went to air. It all came to a head with their mid-season finale, which you can read about on the Eureka Writers tumblr page.
It’s a crazy story with scripts and story ideas being rejected by the network. The telling bit is this quote from the new entry. “Two days before production began… the Powers That Be pulled the plug AGAIN on the script.” Yikes. The post walks through how they managed to pull off the biggest episode of their short season by writing the episode on the fly. It’s a fascinating look behind the scenes.
Tonight on the tube: Premiere week continues!
CBS
ABC’s “National Stay at Home Week” continues tonight as they offer up the series premieres of Opportunity Knocks and the continuing series premiere of Dancing with the Stars. CBS offers up season premieres of oldies favorites NCIS and Without a Trace sandwiched around new show The Mentalist. Now I know this is going to be hard to believe considering we’re talking about CBS, but The Mentalist is a new crime procedural show. It’s nice to see the Eye breaking new and innovative ground with their programming!
3:00a/2:00 Central
- Remember when Charlie Jade was on during prime time? Yeah, that didn’t last. This bizarre sci-fi series from the other side of the world was apparently just too odd to connect with American viewers. Still, it’s odd that Sci Fi put it on in the middle of the night rather than just drop it altogether.
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