The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio
The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio |
| Posted: 27 Sep 2011 03:04 AM PDT If you're the sort who thinks 'guest stars ... who needs them?' Think again. The Sofa Spudniks wax lyrical about celebrity appearances on TV. WHEN pop star Britney Spears opened the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas, she was ridiculed for appearing dazed (and more than a little crazed) as she badly lip-synched her way through a rendition of her new single at the time, Gimme More. The performance was disastrous and marked one of the low moments of the singer's life. Between 2006 and 2008, Spears regularly made headlines for seriously troubled behaviour: from attacking members of the media to appearing drugged and drunk in public; shaving her head bald to appearing disheveled and incoherent at public events, Spears was a wreck. She was eventually forced into drug rehabilitation by her family and close friends and speculation was rife about her future as a pop star and also as a mother (custody of her two children was temporarily taken away from her). Another child doomed for disaster, I thought. Then in March 2008, barely a month after entering rehab, it was announced that Spears was making a comeback … as a guest star in the TV sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Say whaaat? Naturally, I had to watch what I thought would be a train wreck of a performance. I was so interested, I searched for the episode on YouTube. I wasn't the only curious one, obviously. Ratings for the sitcom hit an all-time high: according to reports, approximately 10.6 million viewers (in the key demographic of viewers aged between 16-49) tuned into the show for the episode. Turns out, Spears surprised everyone with her superb comic timing and sensibility as Abby, a slightly ditzy receptionist who had a crush on lead character Ted Mosby. By the end of the episode, Spears won some credibility back; she was better, it appeared, and showed the world that she had acting chops, too. How I Met Your Mother isn't the only show to cast celebrities as guest stars, either. Lots of other sitcoms do it too, either to boost ratings or just to add a little fun into a long-running show. A sitcom that used to regularly cast celebrity guest stars was Friends. Remember Brad Pitt's appearance in Season Eight, (Episode Nine, The One With The Rumour)? Pitt played Will Colbert, Ross' high school mate who had a grudge against Jennifer Aniston's character Rachel. Will use to have a crush on Rachel in high school but she just made fun of him because he was a fat kid. As a result, Will created the "I-hate-Rachel-Green" club in school (with Ross). Well, when Monica bumps into Will in New York, she invites him to join the gang for Thanksgiving, not realising the animosity Will still has for Rachel. Pitt was hilarious: he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Appearance in 2002 for his role. But I bet the episode was a success also because the writers cleverly pitted the then star couple (Pitt was married to Aniston at the time) against each other making for some interesting viewing. More importantly, the writers did a fantastic job in writing a strong and funny character for Pitt without allowing him to steal the show. This, I think, is crucial. You don't want a guest star to hijack your favourite series and make it all about him/her, right? Other stars that have made successful guest appearances on Friends include Sean Penn (in Season Eight as Phoebe's twin sister Ursula's boyfriend), George Clooney and Noah Wyle as two cute doctors who Monica (Courteney Cox) and Rachel fall for (Season One), Bruce Willis as Paul, the father of Ross' college girlfriend (Season Six) and Reese Witherspoon and Christina Applegate who played Rachel's sisters in several episodes throughout the series' 10-season run. I love it when shows surprise fans and viewers by casting a celebrity guests star, especially when it's done subtly. Like when Enrique Iglesias guest starred in Season Four of Two And A Half Men as the handyman Fernando who annoys the heck out of Charlie (Charlie Sheen) because he unwittingly charms one of Charlie's girlfriends. Who knew Iglesias could act so well? And then there are shows that "over cast" their celebrity guests stars to a point that the series loses its character. An example? Glee. Too. Many. Guest. Stars. Don't you think? I know I've been bashing the show a lot of late but it's just my frustration in a show which I started off liking. And finally, there are celebrity spots that just didn't work: Oprah Winfrey on 30 Rock (I thought she was a credible actress?) or Pete Wentz on One Tree Hill (he should stick to singing). For a celebrity casting to work, it is important for the star to be able to not take him or herself seriously and maybe even spoof him or herself. A prime example of this, which I urge you to look up Matt Damon's appearances on 30 Rock as Liz Lemon's (Tina Fey) former boyfriend. Classic. SINCE Indra has basically gone on and on about sitcom guest stars, I'll try and give you people a flip side to the being-able-to-spoof-yourself-on-TV scenario. Of late, I've found myself completely drawn to the dark side of TV. So after a long day at work, I destress by either watching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU), Criminal Minds and CSI – all shows which frequently feature famous guest stars. SVU has featured a number of great performances by actresses like Marlee Matlin, Mary Stuart Masterson and Amanda Seyfried. But I especially enjoyed an episode, recently, with Martin Short in it. Thinking him more adept at performing things like falling off a horse as one of the three amigos, I was suitably impressed to see him steal the show in the episode titled Pure (Season Six) where he plays a psychic (but ends up being uncovered as more psycho than psychic really). I particular like it when actors or celebs you think will least be effective turn out to be a super watch – for instance, who knew Kevin Federline would be able to hold his own in CSI? That show has more famous guest stars than Glee hands down (and what's wrong with Glee's guest stars anyway? I loved Gwyneth Paltrow – hey, she even got an Emmy nomination; and John Stamos was like the best dentist ever ... I think after Steve Martin's dentist in Little Shop Of Horrors, I rank Stamos as one of the best dentists on the screen ever (haha); and Kristin Chenoweth was cool too ... how can you not like great actors who are vocal powerhouses, and what better show to feature them than Glee? Indra needs her teeth ... I mean, head examined.) Back to CSI and its incredible list of guest stars (more stars have guested on the show than killed I suspect): from Dakota Fanning to Roger Daltrey (of The Who fame which incidentally lends tracks as themes to all three CSI franchises) to Taylor Swift. Amazing. I especially like also the fact that occasionally story arcs are built around these guest stars (another thing Glee does which I really appreciate ... in fact, I can't wait to see how Damian McGinty and Samuel Larsen will be written into the show). One standout CSI story arc for me featured Liev Schreiber as Mike Keppler, brought in to replace William Petersen (Grissom) who took a hiatus. It was nice to see Schreiber, whom I was more familiar with watching at the movies (The Omen, The Sum Of All Fears, Kate And Leopold), as a CSI agent! I also enjoy great cameos (of which The Simpsons has featured what seems like everyone: Leonard Nimoy, Barry White, Stephen Hawking, Johnny Cash, Oscar De La Hoya, Winona Ryder, Lebron James, Tony Bennet, Metallica!) In particular I appreciated how Nathan Fillion's character in Castle, a crime novelist enjoys playing poker with his mates every now and again. And just who are these poker buddies? None other than James Patterson, Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane (real life authors with hefty credentials). There used to be a spot for Stephen J. Cannell, as well, but the famous TV producer/writer/novelist passed away last September, after which Castle keeps the seat empty out of respect for his "old friend". Oh break my little heart. Katie Holmes is apparently going to be on How I Met Your Mother playing a ... wait for it... slutty pumpkin. Ann Marie can't wait for the episode and is keeping her fingers crossed Holmes' husband will make an appearance too. |
| Posted: 27 Sep 2011 02:23 AM PDT DJ Mynn is inviting you to play the Threesome game. THEY say three's a crowd but on Red FM's Late Night Love Songs with Mynn (Sundays to Fridays, 10pm-1am), it's a lucky number that could see you winning a fabulous getaway. Send in your three favourite love songs when the cue for Threesome comes on and make a dedication along with it. If your Threesome selection is chosen, you win a stay at the elegant Swiss-Garden Resort and Spa Kuantan. Situated along the East Coast shoreline, the resort offers sensual delights from its luxurious accommodation. Guests get to enjoy the pristine private beach and a host of recreational activities. Just send Mynn your Threesome song choices and you get to take off on an escapade. It's an escapade of a different kind as Red FM's Runaway DJs are taking listeners on as they go out and about to secret locations every Monday to Friday. Clues to their whereabouts are given out on air as well as through the station's website, Facebook page and Twitter account for participants to track them down. The first listener to turn up at the correct location and identify Red FM's Runaway DJ of the day receives cash and a key to be in the running to win a brand new Proton Inspira. You could even win an iPad 2 as it is being given out as a bonus prize at selected destination. Always be on the lookout as you will never know when and where the deejays may pop up! And if you are unable to join the deejays on the run, Red FM will bring you the fun as you get the chance to win your share of the goodies just by going online. Log on to Red FM's Facebook page (www.facebook.com/redfm.my) and follow the steps stated. Add the Red FM Badge to your profile picture and you could pick up an iPod Nano. To find out more details, log on to www.red.fm. Also, join the Red FM Malaysia Facebook fan page and follow them on Twitter (@iloveredfm) for the latest updates. Red FM is owned and operated by The Star. Red FM's station frequencies: Taiping, Kedah, Perlis and Pulau Langkawi: 98.1 FM; George Town and Seberang Prai: 107.6 FM; Ipoh, Perak: 106.4 FM; Klang Valley, Negri Sembilan and Tapah: 104.9 FM; Kuantan, Pahang: 91.6 FM; Batu Pahat and Malacca: 98.9 FM; Johor Baru and Singapore: 92.8 FM. |
| 'Lost' writer spills the beans Posted: 26 Sep 2011 01:27 AM PDT Damon Lindelof only wanted a gig writing for Alias when he agreed to meet with J.J. Abrams about Lost -- and the pair threw in lots of wild elements just because they never expected it to get on the air. One of the main calling cards of the show -- the flashbacks to characters' lives before they crash landed on the island -- was simply a way to cut away from the same old tropical locale. And the out-of-sync storytelling was inspired by Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. If it seemed like the writers were making things up as they went along, by the way, they often were. And also? Lindelof tried to quit the show, again and again. These were just a few of the admissions Lindelof shared about one of television's most beloved shows on the seventh anniversary of its first airing on ABC. He spoke during a keynote address at the New York Television Festival, a gathering where independent writers and producers try to meet with executives and find homes for their pilots. Lindelof was an established TV writer himself, working on NBC's Crossing Jordan, when he first met Abrams. He told interviewer Andrew Jenks, host of MTV's World Of Jenks, that he had been ``stalking'' an ABC executive friend for years to get a job on Abrams' spy series Alias. Eventually the executive, Heather Kadin, called him in January 2004 saying he could meet Abrams about a project. ``The bad news is,'' he recalled her saying, ``it's this ridiculous show idea about a plane that crashes on an island and everyone here doesn't think anything is ever going to happen with it. But Lloyd Braun who was the president of ABC at the time, just thought he had lightning in a bottle: He wanted to do a drama version of Survivor.'' Braun had told Abrams he had a script for an island drama but wanted him to ``work your magic on it,'' Lindelof said. He said Abrams told Braun he was too busy, but would supervise another writer. ``So Heather told me, you meet with J.J., this pilot goes nowhere, but then you get a job on Alias!'' But the pilot went somewhere. Lindelof came in with plenty of ideas, including nonlinear storytelling and flashbacks. ``The biggest issue with a desert island show was the audience is going to get very frustrated that the characters were not getting off the island,'' he said. ``My solution was, hey, let's get off the island every week. And the way we're going to do that is we're going to do these flashbacks. We'll do one character at a time and there's going to be like 70 characters on the show, so we'll go really, really slow, and each one will basically say, here's who they were before the crash and it'll dramatize something that's happening on the island and it will also make the show very character-centric.'' Abrams liked the idea, and also had another: ``'There should be a hatch on this island! They spend the entire season trying to get it open. And there should be these other people on the island,''' Lindelof recalled Abrams saying. ``And I'm like, ''We can call them The Others.' And he's like, 'They should hear this noise out there in the jungle.' And I'm like, 'What's the noise?' And he's like, 'I don't...know. They're never going to pick this thing up anyway.''' Lindelof said the idea to tell the story out of chronological order came in part from Pulp Fiction, in which John Travolta's character is killed about halfway through -- and viewers learn only at the end that he had failed to heed Samuel Jackson's speech in the diner about the path of the righteous man. ``That sort of flipped the switch in me, and was something that I really wanted to do as a storyteller and Lost was really the perfect opportunity to do it,'' Lindelof said. Abrams and Lindelof quickly wrote an outline, and within days, Braun picked up their pilot. (He was soon fired after greenlighting not only Lost but Desperate Housewives, and famously vindicated when both shows became huge hits. Lost ensured he would always be a part of the show by making his the voice that said, at the start of each episode, ``Previously, on Lost.'') Lindelof said he almost immediately felt overwhelmed by the responsibilities of running the show -- and repeatedly decided or tried to quit. By its eleventh episode, he convinced Carlton Cuse, who had been his boss on CBS's Nash Bridges, to come in and help him lead the show. ``I was living, breathing, sleeping the show, it was all I thought about, and I would wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning, thinking about Jin,'' he said. He said he agreed with critics who said the show could never last more than a season. ``If we put it on the air and we're like, there's a polar bear in the jungle, somebody better know where the (expletive) that polar bear came from,'' he said. ``That pressure was enormously debilitating.'' Abrams, meanwhile, had ``plausible deniability'' because he had left the show in Lindelof's hands to focus on movies, Lindelof said: ``When the torch-wielding mob shows up at his house, and they're like, 'Where does the polar bear come from?' he could say, I'm working on Mission Impossible, go to Damon.'' He said he resolved to quit after 13 episodes, then after the first season. Eventually the show went six seasons with him and Cuse in charge. Lindelof eventually recognized unintentional parallels between himself and Jack, the show's lead character. He said it didn't occur to him at first that both he and Jack, played by Matthew Fox, were reluctant leaders mourning the recent deaths of their fathers. Eventually he was given his out from the show that was making him ``miserable,'' he said. In its third season, ABC agreed it would go six seasons in all. A turning point came at the end of the third season when he watched dailies of Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) dying. He cried over not only the character, but the impending end of Lost. He also said the show might not have lasted more than three seasons without the Internet, because it allowed fans and the show's creators to spur each other on. He noted that 23 million people tuned in for the first episode, and only 13 million for the finale -- a sign that the show lost many people as it went on. But those that stayed with it did so in part because the Internet gave them somewhere to vent, he said. ``What got them through those periods of doubt and 'Are you going to break my heart?' was their feeling that they were communicating with us,'' he said. But trying to please fans was a Catch-22. ``There were these two things happening on the show from the minute it began. The first thing was that the audience really wanted to feel like they had an impact on the show,'' he said. ''And the other thing was, you didn't want us to be making it up as we went along. You wanted us to have a plan, you wanted us to have a big binder with the entire show and you didn't want us to deviate from it. And the audience didn't realize that there's a huge contradiction between these two ideas. If you want to have a say, then there can't be a binder. And if there is a binder, then we're basically going to be like, 'we don't care what you guys have to say. We're just turning to page 365 and we're doing Lupitas.''' He added: ``The show had to become sort of an exercise in, 'Here's what it's going to be, guys: We're going to come out and we're going to play our set, and once the set is over you guys can shout out what songs you want to hear and we'll do those for the encore.' And that was the way that we modulated it, and maybe it worked and maybe it didn't. ``But the interaction of the Internet and our genuine desire to hear what the fans were saying and make ourselves accessible to the fans was absolutely essential to the show's success. I am absolutely convinced that we probably would not have made it to season three or season four at the most if the Internet didn't exist.'' As for that job on Alias? It never panned out. The show wrapped after five seasons in 2006, four years before Lost. |
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