Tonight, at 10pm, The Jon Dore Television Show makes its American debut on IFC. The 30-minute comedy, which originally aired on the Comedy Network in Canada, is cocreated by and stars stand-up comic Jon Dore, who aims to improve his life in a new way in each episode. The show has a good-natured misguidedness familiar to fans of The Sarah Silverman Program, features Dore interviewing real people about ridiculous subjects à la Sacha Baron Cohen, and oozes with the kind of happy-go-lucky malaise of Chris Elliott’s Get a Life. Also, it’s super weird.
IFC will air both seasons of The Jon Dore Television Show on 26 consecutive Tuesdays, with encores of each episode the following Saturday. Dore, who was just named as one of Variety’s 10 Comics to Watch, is going places. See where he began.
There’s something special about Captain Jack Harkness of the British show Torchwood. Is it that he can’t die and never ages? Is it that he spends his days tracking down aliens with a crack team of ex-cops and specialists? No, it’s probably that Captain Jack is dead sexy, sports an American accent and snogs boys and girls alike.
“It’s wonderful playing the romantic Jack,” says John Barrowman. The actor straddles all kinds of divides; besides being half American and half British, he’s an openly gay man playing one of TV’s most prominent bisexuals. “I get to portray a person on television that I would want to look up to, if I was a kid growing up in America.” Barrowman was also a West End song-and-dance man before becoming a sci-fi alien hunter—he currently judges singing-competition reality shows and is considering a concert series in Las Vegas. “I’d like to be bicoastal,” he puns. Wouldn’t we all? “You can be! You just have to say yes!
Finally, I’ll be able to play that pristine copy of Dragon Warrior that I haven’t been able to get into because of my crappy, not-really-functioning TV. Yes, friends, I speak of the Retro Mini, a handheld device that evidently plays original NES cartridges. Off the top of my head, I’d love to revisit games like Tecmo Super Bowl, The Legend of Zelda, The Three Stooges, Bible Adventures…
As perhaps you have heard by now, the amazing cinematic feat Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus is coming to a DVD shop near you. Not only does it star Deborah Gibson (as TONY Film writer Josh Rothkopf points out on the Frame-Up, “that Deborah Gibson”), but it stars…a mega shark and a giant octopus. Shout-out to the drunk guys who watched Snakes on a Plane and then dreamed up this movie, the invention of which was surely accompanied by a lot of high-fiving and aggro forehead-to-beer-can contact.
So here’s the big question: What other animals would you like to see pitted against each other in a death-match smackdown? My row-mate Allison Williams just informed me that her friends have actually turned this quandary into a game already—they call it Beast Justice. Eagle vs. narwhal is one of their top picks. After the jump, see our dream face-offs and add your own to the mix. Read more »
Ugh. Ugh. Seriously: Ugh. I hate to be a party pooper, but my Gossip Girl love? Not as strong as it once was. In fact, I can pinpoint only a few choice moments from last night’s episode. (Including the utterly believable moment when Georgina eagerly asks Poppy, “So are you a Carrie? I’m a Charlotte!”—who hasn’t been confronted by some poor, naive young thing who compares their whole life to that show? But I digress.) Mostly, I felt like the whole thing was slightly redundant. Even Georgina going bad didn’t seem to help. Josh agrees.
Josh: those were some nice mug shot photos. i didn’t know the police had such artful lighting Amy: maybe it was the photog from jenny’s fashion hobo days Read more »
Rumors have been circulating about the DVD release of the ’90s sketch-comedy masterwork The State forever, but now it appears that it’s finally going to happen. No more combing YouTube for grainy clips of Louie dipping his balls in things! The show that launched the careers of dudes with names like Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain will become available July 14. Rumor has it that its long delay to the already-obsolete platform had to do mainly with music-licensing rights and MTV, but better late than never (the Blu-ray edition should come some time in 2145). You’re pissing the customer off, Carl!
You know those tax incentives that just ran out, making it near impossible for TV shows and movies to shoot in New York City? Well, they’re chasing away more than just Joshua Jackson (his sci-fi show, Fringe, recently announced that it’s moving to Vancouver). Now the stuff on which Josh might have broodingly sat to solve his mysteries is up and leaving too.
Props for Today, the local company that has provided props for 30 Rock, The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Saturday Night Live, is reported to be filing for bankruptcy—so window-shop its cool 34th Street showroom while you can. And while this news probably doesn’t mean that Tina Fey will be supplying her own office furniture, it is another reminder that the creative cinematic boom we so optimistically hoped for back in 2006 is not going to come from mainstream sources. DIY artists of NYC, unite and takeover!
If you’ve hit on a grassroots way to use this sucky economy to your advantage and make a mark on the city’s artistic scene, let us know.
Last month marked the 200th birthday of controversial natural-selection guy Charles Darwin. To honor the occasion, books have been written, troubling polls have been taken, and bizarre, real-world implications have continued to manifest themselves. His theory is generally considered a bleak one, but tonight at The Times Center, reporter David Brooks talks about the positive ramifications of Darwin’s zany ideas. Galapagos Chaz’s birthday also happens to roughly coincide with the February release of the most recent feature-length Futurama episode, Into the Wild Green Yonder, in which the Planet Express crew discovers an unorthodox way to avert mass extinction. Some thoughts about this latest installment and what comes next for Fry & Co. after the break (a few spoilers). Read more »
Ever since she up and spawned, Beverly Hills 90210’s Tori Spelling has become, dare we say, kind of cuddly. Sure, she’s looking ridiculously skinny these days, and yes, she and her husband, Dean McDermott, got together under very hinky circumstances, and that blowout with her mom after her Daddy died was pretty nasty. And yet somehow, Tori as mom is goofily endearing as she dotes on her two kids (Liam, 22 months, and Stella, seven months) while sporting five-inch heels and more makeup than your local streetwalker. Time Out New York Kids caught up with the celebmom at a Huggies’ Pull-Up party, where Spelling spilled the beans on her family, her new book and her insecurities.
The new seasonof The Amazing Race, the reality show that is part travelogue, part scavenger hunt (with a dash of Fear Factor and a hint of Survivor thrown in), is off to a great start, challenging contestants to hurl themselves off the same 722-foot-high dam that 007 tackled. Our early favorites for the competition: The stunt brothers, and Brad & Victoria; blondes Christie & Jodi, and father-and-son Mel & School-of-Rock Mike are sure to provide great comic relief (”Just don’t let a cheese hit me!”)
What’s the word? Uncanny? Yeah, that’s it. You Fell Asleep Watching a DVD is at once completely useless, totally entertaining and, well, what I do most nights (especially if Arrested Development is selected from the menu). I love that someone took the time to build this thing.
In the late ’90s, the mighty pen of John Milius (who was also partly responsible for the proto neocon classicRed Dawn) scribbled a two-part TNT miniseries called Rough Riders. This Spanish-American War biopic, which carries not one but several big sticks, stars Tom Berenger (Sniper, Sniper III) as Theodore Roosevelt, Gary Busey (Point Break, Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice) as Gen. Joseph “Fighting Joe” Wheeler and Sam Elliott (Road House) as Captain Bucky O’Neil. Why did no one tell me about this brilliant piece of television filmmaking earlier? Pretty embarrassed over here to have found out about it only now, more than a decade on, with the release of the Sam Elliott Western Collection this past Tuesday.
Because she put it best (and apparently without irony) in a 2001 comment about Rough Ridersposted on IMDb, we’ll echo the words of Dianna Trent from New Jersey: “Go buy this film & enjoy the thrill of acting!”
Last Friday, TONY got a special sneak peek at some of Sony’s upcoming offerings for the PlayStation 3 and PSP systems as part of Comic Con’s gaming extravaganza. The PS3 can’t help but look absolutely gorgeous no matter what title is being played, so gameplay, rather than graphics, becomes a larger factor when differentiating among games. Our favorites: Read more »
If, like us, your Eastwood experience begins and ends with the Sergio Leone spaghetti flicks and ends with Space Cowboys, then you may be interested in the forthcoming, four-disc DVD set titled Clint Eastwood: The American Icon Collection. Despite the lack of Mexican standoffs, Eli Wallach and charming chimp companions, this quartet of films—Play Misty for Me, The Eiger Sanction, Coogan’s Bluff and The Beguiled—offers an interesting glimpse into the method of one of Hollywood’s most ornery leading men, who also happens to be one of its craggiest directors. First up for me? The Eiger Sanction, of which TONY Film editor Dave Fear says, “My dad forced me to watch this mountain-climbing action thriller every single time it came on, claiming that it would teach me important, important things. By which he meant the proper way to dispatch a goon via a ‘Colombian necktie.’ Look it up, it’s vicious.”
Clint Eastwood: The American Icon Collection is released Feb 10. More thoughts on this gem after the break.Read more »
We return, after a week’s hiatus (what’s with all the breaks, CW?), to a show we hardly recognize. No, wait. We do recognize it.
Josh: are you really to enter an alternative reality with masks and red curtains? Amy: my life is vaguely kubrickian without me even knowing why. J: honestly, even though eyes wide chuck was the dreamlike half of last night’s episode, it wasn’t nearly as nightmarish as what happened to blair. A: but it’s hard to for me muster sympathy for someone who’s so determined to win at any cost. J: seriously: how stupid is girlfriend behaving? A: nelly yuki: total turncoat. J: let’s start from the top. Read more »
Full disclosure: As a native Baltimorean, I am duty-bound to love The Wire, which gives perhaps the most realistic—and yes, gritty and unforgiving—depiction of Charm City (ohh, that nickname) that you’ll find in fiction. But don’t just take my word for it: Our own Film editor David Fear called it “the HBO show that ranks somewhere between Citizen Kane and the Second Coming of Christ.” Indeed.
And now, the entire the series can be yours—and for the paltry sum of $81.99, no less, which is more than 60 percent off the retail price. While you’re waiting to get this amazing deal in your hot little hands, go read TONY’s interview with Michael K. Williams, a.k.a. cold-blooded thug (and thug-killer) Omar. He cries!
Oh, readers. We apologize for missing last week’s post—you see, Josh was on a “lost weekend” in a Thai opium den, while I was brooding over my latest failed short story in a coffeehouse in Brooklyn.… Okay, no, not really. Really, we were just busy—and totally flummoxed by last week’s episode, which, peculiarly, was pretty boring. I know, I know—the dead son revelation, Chuck losing Bass Industries because of his wee little cocaine-and-hookers habit, Serena and Dan hooking up even though they’re sorta kinda related—it was still boring. And then we get to this week, which was just creepy. What the hell is going on here?
Josh: so let’s begin: dorota in a yale sweater. Amy: SO GOOD! i also loved that blair and her two dads cooed over the dog for, like, a minute, and then he’s dorota’s responsibility, which is so apropros. J: are these the typical yale rituals? a baby bulldog? A: i didn’t go to an ivy league school so i don’t know! Read more »
Rob Corddry’s new send-up of schlocky medical dramas, Children’s Hospital. The ten-episode Web series just launched on the WB’s website, and features Ed Helms, Megan Mullally and Ken Marino, among other comedy superstars.
After a weeklong hiatus, the Best Show Ever returned last night…and we’re feeling kind of meh about the whole thing. Seriously, did anything interesting happen until the last 30 seconds? Nope. Though if those last 30 seconds are any indication, shit’s about to get crazy on the Upper East Side. But in the meantime, we have last night, which was just one blah subplot after another (you know it’s bad when a Blair-Chuck face-off isn’t even full of good juicy drama). Read on for possible plot spoilers and unfettered Jenny-hate…
Television’s newest overadvertised, Gideon Yago–helmed plaything—The IFC Media Project—is set to premiere tonight at 8pm. We (the media) were invited to a sneak peek earlier today in what was likely just an effort to help us better appreciate the Damoclean sword of progress poised over our bowed heads. Imminent doom took the form of a panel featuring Christopher Buckley, Pete Hamill, Bill Kristol and Yago, moderated by Internet empress Arianna Huffington. Many of us feral, half-starved journalists went only on the promise of a free lunch, but we stayed for Kristol’s defanged right-wing bombast and Yago’s (now more Park Slope than Williamsburg) doggedly outraged liberal muttering (so 2005!). Highlights after the break.
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Tonight, at 10pm, The Jon Dore Television Show makes its American debut on IFC. The 30-minute comedy, which originally aired on the Comedy Network in Canada, is cocreated by and stars stand-up comic Jon Dore, who aims to improve his life in a new way in each episode. The show has a good-natured misguidedness familiar to fans of The Sarah Silverman Program, features Dore interviewing real people about ridiculous subjects à la Sacha Baron Cohen, and oozes with the kind of happy-go-lucky malaise of Chris Elliott’s Get a Life. Also, it’s super weird.
Finally, I’ll be able to play that pristine copy of Dragon Warrior that I haven’t been able to get into because of my crappy, not-really-functioning TV. Yes, friends, I speak of the 
Last month marked the 200th birthday of controversial natural-selection guy Charles Darwin. To honor the occasion, 
Ever since she up and spawned, Beverly Hills 90210’s Tori Spelling has become, dare we say, kind of cuddly. Sure, she’s looking ridiculously skinny these days, and yes, she and her husband, Dean McDermott, got together under very hinky circumstances, and that blowout with her mom after her Daddy died was pretty nasty. And yet somehow, Tori as mom is goofily endearing as she dotes on her two kids (Liam, 22 months, and Stella, seven months) while sporting five-inch heels and more makeup than your local streetwalker. 
What’s the word? Uncanny? Yeah, that’s it. 
Full disclosure: As a native Baltimorean, I am duty-bound to love The Wire, which gives perhaps the most realistic—and yes, gritty and unforgiving—depiction of Charm City (ohh, that nickname) that you’ll find in fiction. But don’t just take my word for it: Our own Film editor David Fear 
Oh, readers. We apologize for missing last week’s post—you see, Josh was on a “lost weekend” in a Thai opium den, while I was brooding over my latest failed short story in a coffeehouse in Brooklyn.… Okay, no, not really. Really, we were just busy—and totally flummoxed by last week’s episode, which, peculiarly, was pretty boring. I know, I know—the dead son revelation, Chuck losing Bass Industries because of his wee little cocaine-and-hookers habit, Serena and Dan hooking up even though they’re sorta kinda related—it was still boring. And then we get to this week, which was just creepy. What the hell is going on here?
What’s bloody, bite-size and funny all over?
Television’s newest overadvertised, Gideon Yago–helmed plaything—
