King of Queens
{{Episode: Secret Garden
Saturday, 26 8:00 PM CBS
|| ::Carl Lumbly::
Brother Future
Friday, 25 6:30 AM STZFe
Friday, 25 2:40 AM STZFe Everybody's All-American
Friday, 25 1:00 PM HBOSG
|| ::Victor Garber::
Godspell
Wednesday, 23 8:45 AM STZFe
|| ::Lena Olin::
Mr. Jones
Sunday, 27 12:35 PM SHOe
Sunday, 27 12:35 PM SHOHDe
Sunday, 27 12:35 PM SHO
::Friday, February 07, 2003::
'ALIAS' FOR DUMMIES
"Alias" star Jennifer Garner.
The highly complex plots of ABC's cult spy-hit "Alias" are getting simplified.
The hope, according to ABC sources, is that more people will tune in to watch the show if it's easier to understand.
Last year, with about 9.8 million viewers, the critcally acclaimed show did not achieve the massive ratings ABC desperatly needs to keep the show going at the end of this season.
Part of the problem, according to industry execs, is that the show's twisty plots have been too hard to follow.
ABC officials declined to comment yesterday.
But last month, more than an hour after the Super Bowl ended, the network aired an episode of the show that took it in a new and much simpler direction.
And in the handful of episodes that have aired since then [Or maybe just one...-Sarah], the ratings have gone up slightly. Last week the show was seen by about 11.4 million viewers
Since it began last year, Golden Globe-winning actress Jennifer Garner has played Sydney Bristow, a double agent for the CIA and an evil spy-organization called SD-6.
Here's where it began to get confusing: most of her co-workers at SD-6 believed that they worked for the CIA. But Sydney and her father Jack Bristow both would attempt to foil SD-6 by reporting to the real CIA.
In the episode that aired after the Super Bowl, Sydney obtained enough evidence to set up a raid that shattered SD-6 for good and now allows her and her friends to work directly for the CIA.
"It's really exciting," Garner told a SCI FI wire. "We've made a kind of big change. . . Sydney's no longer a double agent. She's a CIA agent."
The move also opened up the door for Sydney and her CIA handler, Michael C. Vaughn (played by Michael Vartan) to have a romantic relationship without SD-6 discovering her connection to the CIA.
"So they have to figure out what they're going to do trust wise. And they've both been trained to lie all their lives, so what's that going to do to them?" says Garner.
It appears that some of Sydney's co-workers at SD-6 will also join the CIA as well. "All these characters who worked at SD-6 and thought they were working for the CIA and couldn't know that it wasn't the CIA, that kind of stunted all those characters," Garner says.
Article from the New York Post, written by Don Kaplan.
The first Sunday of the February sweep was also a good one for Fox's "The Simpsons" and "Malcolm in the Middle" as well as ABC's "Alias," which rode post-Super Bowl exposure to its best regular-slot rating in more than 15 months.
(non-Alias parts cut)
As for the remake of "Dragnet," it bowed with a solid but unspectacular 4.7/12 in 18-49 -- down slightly from the 4.9/12 that "The Practice" averaged in the 9 p.m. hour last fall. It lost 10% of its "Alias" lead-in among adults 18-49 while building on the younger-skewing spy drama in overall audience (to 13.2 million).
(non-Alias parts cut)
NBC saw "American Dreams" grab its best 18-49 rating since early November (4.2/10) and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (5.3/12) edge out "Alias" and Fox's comedies for the 18-49 lead.
ABC did well at 9 with "Alias" (5.2/12 in 18-49), which hit a regular-slot season high one week after airing after the Super Bowl. Reliable prelims weren't available for the net's coverage of the Pro Bowl.
Meanwhile on scripted programs, more and more product plugs are peddled, then plugged right into a scene.
For instance, there's no mistaking (nor is it any accident) that a certain brand of cell phone is all the rage with the characters on ABC's "Alias" _ yet that cell phone, however conspicuous in the action, never announces itself as a product being pitched. Thus does storytelling commingle with selling on the sly.
Read more at The Washington Post. Article by Frazier Moore.
More sex on TV but it's treated more responsibly, study finds
In TV land, sometimes men and women express their feelings for one another in that, you know, special way.
The post-Super Bowl episode of ABC's "Alias" is a good example. When Sydney was assigned to snuggle up to a bad guy, she got the job done by slinking into the room in a couple of bra and panty sets. Next to a recent episode of Fox's "Fastlane," that's nothing. There, a cop's undercover work required her to lock lips with a girl in a hot tub.
Read more at Seattle P-I. Article by Melanie McFarland.
Matt Murdock (Ben Affleck) and Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner) are lovers by day, enemies by night in Daredevil.
PASADENA, Calif. — Ben and Jennifer are taking a break from the media horde and their hectic schedules for a quick lunch together when she notices something about her tablemate's head.
"Look at that," she says, gently touching the star of the upcoming comic book adaptation Daredevil, which is due Valentine's Day. "Look at all those gray hairs. You didn't have those when we first met."
Ben is quick with his retort: "Yeah, but look at your forehead. It takes up half your face."
No, this isn't the first public spat between Hollywood's hottest fiancée Ben Affleck is with his other Jennifer, Jennifer Garner, who co-stars with him in the first major movie of the year. Having spent months swapping fisticuffs in the film, now they're gently sparring over a meal.
Affleck and Garner have good reason for their good humor. After months of grueling workout regimens and a hectic shooting pace, they can relax and reflect on Hollywood's first comic book foray since a certain web-slinger turned the movie industry on its ear.
For Garner, 30, who also stars in the ABC hit Alias, Daredevil marks her first starring turn on the big screen and could be a barometer of her strength as a leading lady.
For Affleck, the buzz around the superhero finally may mean a respite from the tabloid attention to his not-so-secret identity. Since his engagement to singer-actress-perfume diva Jennifer Lopez, Affleck has garnered the kind of attention that could make the Hulk blush.
Affleck, 30, concedes that the attention to virtually every detail of his life — from his romance to his alcohol rehab — has taken its toll.
"I understand they wanted me for the movie because they thought I'd do a good job in the role," Affleck says, chewing hard on his always-present Nicorette gum. "But they also knew I'd bring a certain amount of publicity to the movie that goes beyond what's on screen. That's not always easy."
Indeed, Daredevil is more a test of Affleck's drawing power than that of the Marvel comic book icon. More people know about the actor's rumored Valentine's Day wedding date and struggles with alcohol than they know about Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer who is a crimefighter by night.
Affleck fidgets in his seat when asked about his personal side. He takes a Game Boy Daredevil game — bearing his likeness and due on shelves in time for the film — and picks at the cellophane when he talks about courting Lopez.
"I've been in public relationships before with Gwyneth" Paltrow, Affleck says of a previous love interest that also made him tabloid bait. "But this isn't the same thing. I didn't expect this much attention. I was kind of shocked."
A few weeks ago, Affleck says, he and Lopez decided to stop at a Los Angeles shopping mall so he could have a link taken out of his watch.
"By the time they got the link out, there were 700 people outside the door," he says. "They had to lock the doors of the store. Then they had to shut down the mall. I just don't get it. And it can make you rethink even the simplest things you want to do."
Including set a wedding date? Affleck says he will not waver in his plan to marry Lopez but quickly adds that the Feb. 14 wedding date is a myth. Beyond that, he says, planning anything in the romance department can be perilous.
"I'll think, 'This would be nice to do, or a good place to go or a good day to do it,' " he says. "Then I'll realize that it will probably be a media event. The danger is in letting that change your priorities about what's important in your life. I struggle not to let that happen."
It was that internal strife that made Affleck right for the role, says Daredevil director Mark Steven Johnson. Though distributor Twentieth Century Fox had considered Edward Norton and Guy Pearce for the title role, Johnson says Affleck's personal demons matched those of his character.
"Matt Murdock is a vulnerable man who is human, gets knocked around and makes mistakes," says Johnson, 38, who also directed Simon Birch. "And so is Ben. He's always been public about his life, even when it pains him. He was the only guy I wanted to play Daredevil."
It didn't hurt that both Affleck and Johnson are certified comic book geeks who spent much of their childhoods thumbing through the illustrated adventures of Daredevil, which was created in 1964 by writer Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett.
The two pressured Fox into boosting the budget from $60 million to $80 million, even though Daredevil's comic book popularity ranks well below Batman, Superman and Spider-Man.
"Everyone thought we were nuts trying to make this into a major movie," Daredevil producer Gary Foster says. "Daredevil is pretty obscure. But when Spider-Man did so well (it grossed $403.8 million in the USA), I got tons of calls from people who said they wished they had done the same."
Spider-Man has raised both hopes and expectations for this year's comic-heavy Hollywood fare. After Daredevil, X Men 2 arrives on screens May 2, followed by The Hulk June 20.
But audiences expecting a Spidey-like experience at Daredevil are in for a start. Though the hero also wears a red, skin-tight costume, this is no Peter Parker. After his first fight scene, which Johnson calls his favorite of the film, Murdock adjusts loose teeth in his mouth, pops pain pills and bathes to soothe the scars and welts on his back. The film twice received an R rating before Johnson made enough cuts to earn a PG-13.
Daredevil's darkness stems from its source material. No comic book film has ever been so faithful to its origins. The names of the comic's writers and illustrators are sprinkled throughout the movie. Kevin Smith, director of Affleck and Lopez's upcoming movie Jersey Girl, who has written more than a dozen installments, has a cameo role. For some scenes, Johnson ripped out pages from the comic book for dialogue and set design.
"He blew up some panels and put them on the set so we'd know exactly how we were supposed to look," says Garner, who had not read a comic book before signing on for the movie. "They wanted everything in the movie to look like the comic book — including us."
Which meant some intense body sculpting for its stars. Johnson brought in martial arts master Cheung Yan Yuen, who choreographed much of the stunt work for this year's two Matrix installments, to whip the actors into shape.
"Jen and I did a lot of bonding on the set," says Affleck, who was paid a reported $12.5 million for the role. "That's what happens when you are the only two English-speaking people around. Everyone else was Chinese."
And not always flattering. Affleck says that after each day of workouts and rehearsals, a translator would give the actors an appraisal of their progress.
"The translator would come up to us and say 'Master Cheung Yan says you are at 5%. He is very unhappy,' " Affleck says, laughing. "It was refreshing to get an honest appraisal of your work, to be told you're a disgrace to the family."
Honesty, he concedes, is something he has missed since his face began gracing tabloid and magazine covers. He has been on the cover of People magazine twice recently: once for his alcohol abuse rehabilitation in August 2001 and again in December 2002 when the magazine named him the Sexiest Man Alive. Tabloids have claimed that Lopez called off a Valentine's Day wedding because buddy Matt Damon tried to talk him out of it and that Affleck has spent $11 million on former CIA and FBI agents to guard Lopez.
Affleck says most of what is written about him are "blatant lies," but he concedes he has entered into a "Faustian bargain" with the media. He decries much of the attention to his private life, but then he appears in Jenny From the Block, the music video from Lopez's latest album that features a shot of Affleck's hand placed squarely on his fiancées rear end.
"I've done this long enough to know the deal," he says.
"All I can do is make the movies I want to make and try to make my personal life as much my own as I can. Besides, in a couple of years, there will be someone the media is hot to follow."
And as lunch concludes, he suggests to a reporter a new target.
"Hey, I saw a picture of (Daredevil co-star) Colin Farrell and Britney Spears together," he says. "Now that is a story."
Unquestionably, the most popular topic in my mailbox this last week has been the effusive reaction to the post-Super Bowl episode of Alias. (For my critical reaction and my disappointment at ABC's delaying the start until after 11 pm/ET, check out my Jan. 27 Dispatch.)
Mere minutes after the episode went off the air, Anne posted this cheer: "I think it has to be the best episode of the season. It was really good how they worked the background information into the episode for the new viewers and Syd and Vaughn finally kissed. The suspense, the intrigue, the surprise at the end. Wow! I just loved it so much! I can't wait for the next episode." Katie wrote in: "Wow, can Alias be any more incredible? Seriously? It is by far the best hour of television, and it never ceases to do anything less than amaze me. Although I have so many questions and thoughts and opinions about the show, the one thing that stands out in my mind is, where was Lena Olin? Did they purposely leave her out of the episode to avoid confusing those who don't follow the show or what? Oh, and how about Syd and Vaughn? Can we say perfect timing? Can't wait to see what happens next!"
These reactions reinforce my opinion that even in the midst of this reality craze, there is still such great value to be attached to shows, like Alias and 24, that keep you breathlessly waiting for the next episode. (Unpredictability is also one of the great selling points of reality TV, it should be noted here, so I'm not branded a complete reality curmudgeon.)
As for Lena Olin's absence, I can only speculate that J.J. Abrams was crunching so much story here, that to insert her enigmatic presence into this epic episode would have been too much even for avid fans of the show to digest readily. How she will fit into this new Alias — and what we will learn of her true loyalties in a post-Alliance landscape — remains to be seen.
There were some doubters. Dan S. wrote: "I can't help feeling a bit cheated. Alias fans have waited patiently for two years, enduring the mounting tension and hanging on every plot twist, only to have the whole thing unfurl in a ball of flames. It's not that the episode wasn't entertaining — it just wasn't the same show that I'm used to watching. The new plot lines look interesting. I just wish they weren't rushed upon us so soon in an effort to grab ratings." And Marta found it "a bit of a disappointment. I felt like I was watching a pilot episode of a new show and not Alias. Everything was different, and I think they got rid of all the SD cells a bit too easily. The kiss between the two characters looked fake and I'm very upset about Francie. (I would have been happier if she was just bad and not some Mission: Impossible look-alike.)."
All interesting and mostly valid concerns — although the kiss looking "fake" I can't relate to — but I was thrilled by this bold and explosive episode. I can't remember watching an hour of such volcanic change. The Francie twist completely stunned me — in a good way. I do worry that Alias may lose a layer of tension now that Syd and Jack no longer have SD-6 looking over their shoulder. But it may also be liberating (that's how Abrams sees it, anyway). If Alias had to adapt to survive, this was the way to do it.
Cindy wrote that the episode "has me worried that it's becoming a little far-fetched, and has me confused about what's to come. The whole look-alike story for (the murdered) Francie seems so over-the-top. I don't know. I pray it gets picked up for season three."
A little far-fetched? The show is complete and total escapist fantasy. Reality has nothing to do with it. As for the future, I'm convinced (don't ask me why) that ABC will renew the show, no matter what. It's so brilliantly produced and it enjoys the kind of media buzz that will last long after Bachelorette's Trista takes her final bow.
ABC may have blown it by starting the episode too late, but the show still enjoyed about double the audience it usually gets, and if a percentage of these viewers come back (why wouldn't they?) then it won't have been a totally lost opportunity. Everyone wishes the ratings were higher, but the demographics are solid. And unless ABC chooses to go with wall-to-wall reality (shades of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire overexposure), the network is better off with Alias than without it.
And finally, I know many questions were raised by the revelations in the episode's final act. But I'll wait to see more before I address any specific concerns. I'll leave Alias with this exuberant reaction from Arianna: "How amazingly wonderful was Alias's latest episode? I was like, "J.J. Abrams is a genius.'' Seriously, Syd and Dixon's scene? Emmy anyone? Carl Lumbly made you almost feel Dixon's pain. Francie's evil clone? Sloane and Sark? The long-awaited kiss? What else can we expect? Can J.J. Abrams top himself and write something even better than this?"
We can only hope so.
Article from TV Guide Online, written by Matt Roush.
Jennifer Garner, who plays Elektra in the upcoming Daredevil movie, told SCI FI Wire that a year's worth of Alias prepared her for the hard-fighting role—but only up to a point. "I don't think I could have just launched into this role with any confidence if it hadn't been for a year of fighting constantly every two days," she said in an interview. "But I did definitely have to bump it up a notch."
In particular, Garner had to train with twin sais, or Asian short swords—Elektra's trademark weapons. Trainer Don Lee came to the Alias set during lunch and also worked with Garner during her breaks. "He would come to my house every Sunday for hours, and we would be in the backyard kind of tearing things up," she said. "He taught me fights, so I would learn how to fight with the sais. And my husband, Scott [Foley], would kind of look out the back windows on Sunday and say, 'Oh god, that's not good. This is not good.'"
In addition, Garner and star Ben Affleck had to learn wire work with martial-arts choreographer Cheung Yan Yuen and his team. "Ben and I trained for this one fight in the playground [three hours] every day for six weeks nonstop," she said. "We would work [on the film] all night, sleep ... from six to noon, meet each other around noon, [wire train] for three hours, and then go straight downtown and work all night again on a different fight."
The training and fighting eventually took their toll. "I took a divot of skin out of [Affleck's] nose," Garner said. "He fought with a stick, and he bashed all of my knuckles open, like just wide open. ... And then Colin Farrell [Bullseye] had to bite my lip in a fight and got so into it he just started gnawing on me. So the next day and for the next week I had a lip kind of out to here that was black." But because of ratings concerns, the lip shot didn't make it into the final cut of the movie, which opens Feb. 14, she added.
ABC's excellent "Alias" is capping a recent post-Super Bowl series reconstruction with two high-profile guest stars. Ethan Hawke guest-starred this past Sunday, and Christian Slater, coming off a recent "West Wing" stint, will be featured this Sunday as a scientist who could help the evil Sloane (Ron Rifkin) achieve his new plans.
"Alias," a great series that deserves more viewers, is one of few shows worth watching that doesn't annoyingly exploit its sweeps-stunt guest stars and makes rather efficient use of their talents to serve the ongoing conspiracy plots. It's a refreshing choice amid the bloated month of new episodes and greedy expectations of network executives.
We could always look on the bright side: no more reruns for an entire month, the one part of sweeps you can always count on.
Read more at The State Hornet. Article by Lauren Robeson.
ABC was in fourth place but got good news from its spy series "Alias," which received a bit of a bounce from its post-Super Bowl telecast, drawing its biggest audience since the season premiere.
Read more and see a ratings chart. Article by John Scheibe.
The toughest girl on TV is taking charge on the big screen, going blow-for-blow with Ben Affleck and Colin Farrell in the new action thriller, "Daredevil." Jennifer says, "There's nothing like being bad"
It’s a role on the opposite end of her day job, where Jennifer stars as the sexy good girl. "Alias" got a huge boost by running enticing promos during the Super Bowl, exposing a high dose of Jen-appeal. She says, "I'm so glad I did not see those ads. I would've just crawled under my bed and stayed there."
Jen and co-star Michael Vartan finally got to kiss, giving "Alias" fans a killer buzz. Jennifer says, "You can only string it along before it stops being believable. Even Michael and I, during scenes, would be like, 'Oh come on, let us kiss.'"
But off screen, Jen's lips are reserved for one guy only, husband Scott Foley. He is going from "Felicity" to starring in NBC's new sitcom, "A.U.S.A." Jennifer says, "The reason I fell in love with him, or one of the reasons, is cause he's so funny. I can't wait for the world to see how funny my man is."
Alias star Jennifer Garner, who plays secret agent Sydney Bristow, told SCI FI Wire that the show's new direction means a whole different set of issues for all of the show's characters. "It's really exciting," Garner said in an interview while promoting her upcoming film Daredevil. "We've made kind of a big change. ... [Sydney's] no longer a double agent. She's a CIA agent."
In addition, Sydney's former employer, the nefarious criminal agency SD-6, has been destroyed. "All of these characters who worked at SD-6 and thought they were working for the CIA and couldn't know that it wasn't the CIA, that kind of stunted all those characters," Garner added. "Now, ... the doors are blown open. The guy who plays my partner, Carl Lumbly, who plays Marcus Dixon, he now has all this genius stuff to play. 'You've betrayed me all this time.' What does this mean to his marriage? What does this mean in his life?"
Garner added that Marshall, the techno nerd played by Kevin Weisman, now works for the CIA. "He can be much more involved in the missions," she said.
As for her and co-star Michael Vartan, who plays CIA agent Michael Vaughn, Garner said, "It means that Sydney and Vaughn can fall in love. And we can explore what it means for two people at the beginning of a relationship to realize, 'We're not just in the beginning of a relationship. We're also CIA agents.' So they have to figure out what they're going to do trust-wise. And they've both been trained to lie all their lives. So what's that going to do to them? So it's going to be cool." Alias airs on ABC Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Daredevil, in which Garner plays Elektra, opens Feb. 14.
RADNOR, Pa. –– Ben Affleck and Big Macs, perfect together.
Affleck, who stars as a blind comic-book hero in the upcoming film "Daredevil," had to dye his hair red to play lead character Matt Murdock.
"I was glad I did, except when I was wandering around in my real life with this big red Afro. I looked like Ronald McDonald," Affleck tells the Feb. 8 issue of TV Guide.
Affleck says he admires the athletic ability of his co-star, Jennifer Garner (television's "Alias"), who performed many of her own stunts and learned how to work with martial-arts knives.
"She was really tough," said Affleck.
"Daredevil," directed by Mark Steven Johnson and also starring Michael Clark Duncan and Colin Farrell, will be released Feb. 14.
DreamWorks leads the Cinema Audio Society race for outstanding sound in motion pictures. The studio's "Catch Me If You Can" and "Road to Perdition" were nominated along with Miramax's "Chicago," New Line's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and Sony Pictures' "Spider-Man." Television nominees include ABC's "Alias: Cipher."
Read more. Article from The Hollywood Reporter, written by Sheigh Crabtree.
Hell hath no fury like David E. Kelley when one of his series has been moved out of its time slot.
Twentieth Century Fox TV -- production home of Kelley's series -- yesterday sent an e-mail to The Reporters Who Cover Television savaging the debut of Dick Wolf's new ABC series, "Dragnet," in the Sunday 10 p.m. slot that, until recently, had been home to Kelley's "The Practice."
"Despite the benefit of the highest rated 'Alias' lead-in since October 21, 2001 (as well as a 3-month, $10 million promotional campaign), the premiere of 'Dragnet' fell below 'The Practice's' first-run season average among adults 18-49," sniffed the e-mail.
ABC suits presumed the e-mail was sent to placate Kelley, who last week had a very public tantrum when the first numbers came in for "The Practice" in its new Monday time slot opposite Fox's "Joe Millionaire." Kelley's show had plunged to less than 9 million viewers.
To trade paper Variety, Kelley suggested, among other things, that "it's folly to try to guess what's in [ABC execs'] heads because that would start with the presumption that there's something" in them.
In its snippy-mail, 20th Century Fox TV noted that "Dragnet" did outrate the performance by "The Practice" in the time slot by 18 percent among -- gasp -- viewers 50 or over. The line was not intended as a compliment; in TV-speak, 50-plus is toxic.
Needless to say, 20th Century Fox TV did not congratulate "Dragnet" for beating the debut of NBC's highly hyped "Kingpin" among viewers overall, with an average of 13.3 million viewers to 12.5 million for "Kingpin."
Article from The Washington Post, written by Lisa de Moraes.
You know their faces. You see them everywhere. They are working double-time in Hollywood, yet they still don't have a series to call their very own.
Here are the familiar faces I think deserve their own show:
Edward Atterton: He was Danny, Sydney's fiancé on "Alias." He romanced Karen on "Once and Again" and was nasty to Inara on "Firefly." We only saw him briefly on "Alias," but in mere minutes he helped create a lasting and memorable relationship (remember the singing?) that has propelled much of the series action. If we didn't believe Danny's relationship with Sydney, we wouldn't have completely understood Sydney's wrath.
Olivia D'Abo was the dead CIA agent Emma Wallace on "Alias." She was Marie on "The Single Guy" and Karen Arnold on "The Wonder Years."
While his wife is beating up bad guys, he's spending time in a courtroom -- or at least a sound stage that looks like one.
Scott Foley is half of a two-series couple as the husband of "Alias" star Jennifer Garner. After his four-year run as Noel on "Felicity," he resumes weekly TV work by heading the ensemble cast of the NBC law comedy "A.U.S.A." premiering Tuesday, Feb. 4.
Foley plays Assistant United States Attorney (A.U.S.A.) Adam Sullivan, an intelligent young man whose gullible nature proves to be an impediment in court as well as in romance. His usual foil in both arenas is beautiful Susan Rakoff (Amanda Detmer, "The Majestic" ), a savvy public defender who has no use for prosecutors such as Adam. Naturally, this is an attitude he'd like to change. The other co-stars are Peter Jacobson ("61*" ), Ana Ortiz ("Mr. St. Nick" ), Eddie McClintock ("Stark Raving Mad") and John Ross Bowie ("Road Trip" ).
Foley did a guest stint on NBC's "Scrubs" last season, but he hesitates to label "A.U.S.A." the law version of that medical comedy. "That's how it was originally pitched to me," he says, "as a single-camera show shot in the same style, but we've revamped the show since. It's now more of a traditional sitcom shot with multiple cameras."
"I think 'Scrubs' is hilarious, and I hope the folks there will feel the same way about our show, but it's not quite as off the wall. They do great things with sound effects that we don't have."
The research "A.U.S.A." required of Foley was minimal. "The character is based -- and not at all loosely -- on Richard Appel, the show's creator and executive producer, who spent the better part of four years at the Manhattan United States Attorney's Office," Foley says. "This is based on his trials and tribulations as a young lawyer, so the character was pretty much on the page for me from the start."
Even with law as its fuel, Foley says "A.U.S.A." doesn't focus too intently on the case of the week: "Sometimes, we all look at politics and the law from the stance of, 'Are they kidding? Don't they see how absurd that is?' There are some humorous situations with respect to what these people do, but any great comedy is character-driven. With 'WKRP in Cincinnati,' even though they were in a radio station, what was really funny about that? It's the characters. Some people who have seen our show already have told me it feels like they've been watching it for years."
Playing a show's central character is a new experience for Foley. "I love the fact that all this great stuff is being written specifically for me," he says, "and that NBC is using my name and face to sell the show. I also feel a little guilty about it, but any actor who tells you he doesn't want all this attention is a liar."
"It's also a bummer in a way, though. I'm always on the set or rehearsing while others on the show get time off. I don't get the opportunity, like I had on 'Felicity,' to bond with some of my fellow actors. Hopefully, that'll come."
Foley, a Kansas City native, is happy that "Felicity" still has a television berth. WE (Women's Entertainment) runs repeats several times each weekday; also, the first season's episodes are available in a DVD box set. "We were so fortunate," Foley reflects. "At our worst, we were better than most. I could tell just from the pilot script that the series was going to be great, but I went through waves with Noel (who sometimes replaced rival Ben as the love of college student Felicity's life). I'd love playing him, then I'd be frustrated with his indecisiveness. Ultimately, I really liked him. He's a good guy."
Working on "Felicity" familiarized Foley with producer J.J. Abrams -- now Garner's "Alias" boss -- and also with Garner, whom he met when she appeared as Noel's ex-girlfriend, Hannah. The actress stays very physical in the upcoming movie "Daredevil," and while Foley is thrilled about her success, he adds, "She comes home and shows me bruises, and I'm like, 'Honey, I don't want to see that; you're my wife.' Being in a two-series family is a hard thing to manage, but we're doing as well as we can."
"We had a great two weeks off for Christmas, and at dinner the last night before we went back to work, she said, 'Well, I'm going back in the box. See you in April.' It's sort of like that. We talk on the phone and pass in the night a lot. I won't lie, it's hard, but because we recognized that it would be, I think we're going to be OK. I hope we will."
CBS (9.2/13), NBC (8.7/13), ABC (8.0/12), Fox (7.4/11), WB (3.6/5)
-Yesterday's Winners:
60 Minutes (CBS), The Simpsons (Fox), Charmed (WB), Everybody Loves Raymond R (CBS), Law & Criminal Intent (NBC), Kingpin (NBC), Dragnet (ABC)
-Yesterday's Losers:
Dateline (NBC), The Pro Bowl (ABC)
-Ratings Breakdown:
Although CBS won the evening with a 6 percent advantage over second-place NBC, it was the debuts of NBC's Kingpin and ABC's Dragnet that were the most newsworthy. Kingpin won the 10 p.m. hour with a 10.4/15 -- 7 percent above ABC's competing (and second-place) Dragnet (9.7/14), with 90 percent retention out of lead-in Law & Order: Criminal Intent (#1: 11.5/16). Comparatively, Kingpin outdelivered the regularly scheduled Boomtown by approximately 30 percent. Dragnet, meanwhile, was up 21 percent from above-average lead-in Alias (#3: 8.0/11), with its initial overnight delivery relatively on par with former time period occupant The Practice. Consider this a positive start for both new series.
Opposite Kingpin and Dragnet, the second hour of CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame made-for, Brush With Fate, ranked third with an 8.3/12. Overall, the two-hour movie averaged an 8.6/13.
Earlier in the evening, CBS mainstay 60 Minutes opened the night with a time period-winning 10.3/13 followed by Becker (#2: 8.9/13) and a repeat of Everybody Loves Raymond (#1: 9.8/140. For more on Becker, see TV Tidbits below.
On NBC, Dateline remains a Sunday weak link with a 6.3/9 at 7 p.m. followed by the critically acclaimed, but ratings challenged, American Dreams at a 6.7/9. Opposite Dateline and American Dreams was The Pro Bowl on ABC at a modest 6.8/10.
On Fox, there was nothing unusual to report with a 7 p.m. edition of King of the Hill at a fourth-place 5.0/8 followed by another edition of the recently renewed animated sitcom (#3: 6.2/9), two episodes of Sunday standout The Simpsons (8 p.m. #1: 9.7/14; 8:30 p.m. R #2: 9.5/13) and two episodes of Malcolm in the Middle (9 p.m. #4: 7.7/11; 9:30 p.m. #4: 6.4/9). Yes, it's confirmed -- Lois is pregnant.
Finally, on the WB, Charmed keeps on ticking with a healthy 4.5/7 at 9 p.m. -- 50 percent above its Gilmore Girls: Beginnings lead-in (3.0/4) and 36 percent ahead of lead-out High School Reunion (3.3/4).
For Fox, It's Daredevil vs. February
The studio is betting that its new superhero flick will beat that month's usual box-office blahs for action movies.
Daredevil isn't your typical action hero. Created in 1964 by Stan Lee -- father of such Marvel Comic's heros as Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk -- he's the world's first blind comic-book crusader. He also has a streak of vigilantism in him, like Batman. So it figures that Daredevil's big-screen debut would be just as atypical. The muscle-bound guy in the skin-tight red suit will leap into multiplexes on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14. A romantic date, perhaps, but not exactly prime time for an action flick aimed at teens.
You see, The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter sequels may captivate kids at Christmas, and Arnold Schwarzenegger shoot-em-ups may mow 'em down in summer, but no action film has ever done much business in February -- the dead of winter.
Actually, February isn't much of a month for blockbusters of any kind. According to Exhibitor Relations Co., which follows all things box office, only five films released in February have ever passed the magic $100 million milestone. The last one was the flesh-eating Hannibal, which chomped its way to $165.1 million in ticket sales in 2001. The closest thing that Exhibitor Relations President Paul Dergarabedian could find to a February-opening action blockbuster was the $70.7 million generated by the John Travolta film Broken Arrow, which was released in 1996. Why now for Daredevil?
REVENGE OF THE CLONES. Chalk it up to Hollywood's preoccupation with creating franchises -- movies that take on a life of their own, spewing out sequels, TV shows, and tchotchkes ad infinitum. There's proven silver-screen gold in comic-book heroes. Sony created magic last summer with Spider-Man -- like Daredevil, a Marvel Comic property -- grossing $403 million at the box office. Now Spidey is bringing in big bucks with DVD sales, and Sony already has a sequel in the works. Fox had its own hit with musclebound mutants the X-Men in 2000. Small wonder the studio wants another superhero to market.
The problem is, everyone's jostling to get into the franchise game these days, so it isn't easy to get a good opening weekend. Moviegoers are still crowding the theaters to see the second Lord of the Rings flick, which opened on Dec. 22, as well as the second Harry Potter. And starting in May, the studios will be rolling out franchise flicks every two weeks -- Fox has a second X-Men movie coming out, Warner its second Matrix, Universal has The Hulk, Warner the third Terminator, and Paramount its followup to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. What to do with a potential new entry in the franchise pool?
Fox executives insist it has been their plan all along to zig when everybody else zags and release Daredevil on Valentine's Day. "Some people may see it as a risk. We see it as opportunity," says Pam Levine, Fox's president of domestic theatrical marketing. "You can make this a good date if you have the goods."
SELLING THE DEVIL. Besides, Fox thinks the film will sizzle, not fizzle. It's filled with whiz-bang special effects. And the cast is clearly designed to appeal to teens and young adults. To lure the gals, Ben Affleck has the title role -- lawyer by day, red-suited crusader by night. And Jennifer Garner, star of ABC's Alias, is certain to appeal to just about any hetero guy with a heartbeat. Garner plays Elektra Natchios, a karate-kicking action star who appears mostly in black leather pants and a skimpy skin-tight leather halter. We all know what they're selling here.
Indeed, it was the love story that helped convince Fox to make the film in the first place. The script lay moribund at Sony, recalls Sanford Panitch, president of production at New Regency Pictures, which is producing the film. Panitch, a fan of the comic books, says he bid for the rights as Spider-Man was being produced. He signed on Affleck, another Daredevil fan, shortly afterward. "We thought it was a cool idea about what it's really like to be a superhero," says Panitch. He got Garner just after she made a splash as the sultry spy on ABC. "She's ultrasexy, and that certainly helps," Panitch says in classic understatement.
Fox has $75 million riding on its mid-winter gamble. That may pale in comparison to the $140 million that Sony spent on Spider-Man, but it's still a significant amount of movie money. Fox has also bought prime real estate for TV commercials, including one in the second quarter of the Super Bowl as well as during such TV hits as Friends and Law and Order. There's a tie-in with Kraft, an in-store promotion at Wal-Mart, and a weeklong Daredevil segment coming on Entertainment Tonight.
FEW OTHER CONTENDERS. Fox has been around this track before with X-Men, another Marvel property. If Daredevil hits big, look for not just a sequel but a spin-off for Elektra. Moreover, Fox has a history of beating the odds by scheduling films in places you'd least expect. Last year, it had a big success with the animated film Ice Age, which was released in March, three months before kiddie flicks usually hit the theater.
The best thing Daredevil has going for it may be the a lack of competition. The weekend that Matt and Jennifer open, they go up against Disney's The Jungle Book 2. The next weekend it's the Will Ferrell comedy Old School, and the weekend after, the Civil War drama Gods and Generals. And Fox may also be banking on folks being ready by February for a little escapism after all the heavy stuff that was released in a pre-Oscar rush in December.
"Nothing else like [Daredevil] is out there, that's for certain," says Exhibitor Relations' Dergaradebian. "And they're doing all the right things to guarantee a large box office." Maybe Fox is correct in hoping that people fall in love on Feb. 14 -- even if it is with a guy in a skin-tight red suit.
Article from Business Week, written by Ron Grover.
Alias star Jennifer Garner told SCI FI Wire that she's going to have to get in touch with her inner adolescent to star in the upcoming fantasy film 13 Going on 30 next summer. "I play this young woman who at 13 suddenly fast-forwards to 30 physically, and ... the rest of her family has fast-forwarded that far ahead, [too,] but emotionally she's still where she is at her 13th birthday," Garner said in an interview while promoting her next film, Daredevil.
Garner, 32, said that she's still in touch with her 13-year-old side. "I think so," she said. "Everyone in the Alias cast is like, 'Oh, yeah, this is a no-brainer. She's 13 all right. She may be 12.'"
Garner added, "I'm so excited. I'm really nervous. But it feels closer to me character-wise than anything I have really played so far. It's ... the female version of Big. But it's a movie with a lot of heart, and it should be funny. And Mark Ruffalo is going to star in it with me. And it's at Revolution Studios, and Gary Winick is going to direct it, and it's going to be great." 13 Going on 30 is slated for a 2004 release; Daredevil, in which Garner plays Elektra opposite Ben Affleck's Matt Murdock, opens Feb. 14.
The Advertising Council has teamed with ABC for a series of public service announcements promoting racial tolerance and timed to coincide with Black History Month.
The seven spots have stars from such ABC shows as "My Wife and Kids," "Alias," "NYPD Blue," "The Practice," "Less Than Perfect" and "The View." This is the first year the Manhattan-based Ad Council has worked with ABC on these types of announcements, which were produced by the Leo Burnett agency of Chicago and began running on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 20. The campaign is part of ABC's ongoing public service initiative, "A Better Community."
Among the stars appearing in the announcements are Tisha Campbell- Martin, Jennifer Nicole Freeman and Parker McKenna Posey of "My Wife and Kids"; Jennifer Garner and Merrin Dungey of "Alias"; Henry Simmons and Gordon Clapp of "NYPD Blue," and Dylan McDermott, Lisa Gay Hamilton and Steve Harris of "The Practice." The spots will run on the network throughout the day during February, said Kelly Apostolidis, the council's director of national media outreach.
The partnership emerged when ABC was planning how best to support Black History Month, she said. In August, the Ad Council launched the Racial Cooperation campaign with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and the public service announcements feature the theme, "Imagine the power of one voice."
"We thought this would be the perfect way for us to work with ABC for Black History Month," Apostolidis said.
At 9 p.m., NBC took the top spot with the highest-rated and most-watched show of the night, "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," 10.0/15, causing CBS to drop to second with its movie "Brush with Fate" (8.2/13 average from 9 to 11 p.m.). ABC and FOX tied for third with "Alias" and back-to-back episodes of "Malcolm in the Middle" all averaging a 6.7/10 for the hour.
Great, it's working again! After three days down...argh. There's a bunch of articles in the archives that I posted on Friday and Saturday, so check those out.
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