Geraldo Rivera took another foul-smelling shit on respectable TV journalism as he broadcast the bloodied corpse of suicide-case supermodel Ruslana Korshunova on Fox News.

His comments on the scene were tabloidtastically awesome as well: “These are the last images of her broken body being lifted off the Manhattan sidewalk, where shocked and sickened witnesses watched her smash onto the concrete.”

All vomit aside, did we really expect anything better from either Geraldo or Fox News?  This is the same mustached loser who disclosed the location of American troops in 2003; supposedly pushed an aide worker aside during the Katrina rescue; and, y’know, that whole Al Capone vault thing.

Swooping in to the rescue came David Clark, executive producer of programming at Fox News, to say, “It was a producer error and we deeply regret it.”  Uh-huh.  No, seriously, we believe you—”error.”  ‘Cause Fox News has never done anything aggressively stupid for ratings.

I got a chance to watch the new J.J. Abrams pilot Fringe last night. It’s pretty good in the vein of Alias, albeit without all the kick ass action. But it’s sort of similar with shadowy agents and organizations with big conspiracies and what not.

The plot centers around an FBI agent, a mad scientist and his vagabond genius child (Joshua Jackson) trying to piece together a mysterious infection or incident aboard a flight from Hamburg, Germany to Boston’s Logan Airport.

Yes, it’s cool it takes place in Boston, but it’s not cool that it’s so obviously not taking place in Boston or that the show’s writers didn’t do their homework about Boston. There is absolutely no way there is a giant storage facility in Boston’s Back Bay. Sorry. If you take the time to visit the Back Bay you would know this.

Gripes aside, this is an intriguing procedural with enough paranormal mystery and interesting characters to keep me coming back in the fall. It’s a J.J. Abrams show via The X-Files. Need I say more.

Fringe is scheduled to air in September. The leak is here. DC Comics will publish a comic-book prequel to Fringe Aug. 27 and the show already has a few fan sites, including this one.

I’ll be offering more thoughts on the show and doing a full review, but I just wanted to quickly let you know the show is out there to watch. Now anyone know if Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse has leaked yet?

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Update: You can watch the Season Four premiere in edited fashion at Variety.

Over the past three weeks I’ve devoured the first three seasons of Showtime’s darkly funny Weeds. For those who watch the show and I’d assume love it dearly, please skip ahead and know that the shows returns tonight at 10 p.m. on Showtime for the start of Season Four. We’re all terribly excited around these parts.

Like the best television shows, Weeds works on a level beyond its mere premise. Sure, it’s “about” a suburban mother who sells pot, but it’s also “about” the gray area people will live in and justify to survive. It’s about trying to take the American Dream and keep it from slipping from your fingers.

Nancy Botwin is a single mother (twice widowed), who’s slowly moving up the drug food chain to provide a better life for her two children, Shane and Silas. Except that, you know, dealing drugs leads to all sorts of problems and rather than make her children’s lives better Nancy just about ruins them.

Played by Mary-Louise Parker with a dose of intelligence, survival instinct, recklessness, ingenuity and coquettish charm, Botwin finds herself in one pickle after another like inadvertently becoming the driver for a drive-by-shooting, becoming romantically involved with a Drug Enforcement Agent, and so on and so on.

She keeps it together by the friendship of Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon), her wacky CPA; her rivalry with frenemy Celia Hodes (Elizabeth Perkins), perhaps the most loathsome character on the show but I root like hell for her to find redemption or at the very least stop being such a bitch; the irrepressible brother-in-law Andy Botwin (Justin Kirk), who has nothing but good intentions but fails miserably as a porn star, rabbi, Army recruit, Uncle, business partner, well pretty much everything he does except for sleeping with crazy women; and of course, Conrad, the best damn grower of marijuana and Botwin’s love interest.

The cast of characters on this show keeps things breezy and funny, but the darkness of the material and the constant valleys for all involved elevate the material to something more meaty than your average sitcom.

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David Simon’s new miniseries Generation Kill will premiere on July 13 and continue for six Sundays on HBO. It’s based on the book by Rolling Stone contributor Evan Wright.

“At the start of the second Gulf War, Evan Wright, a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine, was embedded with the Marines of the First Recon Battalion. While other units made a westerly swing along a major highway into Baghdad, the Devil Dogs of First Recon stormed through a narrow stretch of back roads, guns blazing. Along the way, they fought against the hardest resistance Saddam had to offer.”

Interestingly, the Devil Dogs were sent on missions to weed out the enemy and essentially be a human shield for the platoons coming in after them. But this was not to their knowledge. Sounds fascinating.

Also to be kept an eye on will be the reception of this series. Movies and television shows centered around the War in Iraq have had an icy reception in the past from both viewers and the media. David Simon, creator of The Wire, is a media darling and rightfully so. Will people be turned off or on by this new show?

I’m guessing the former since the media conveniently found their balls once President Bush became a lame duck (though they’re still giving John “I’m computer illiterate” McCain a relative free pass).

Sounds like the set up for a good joke, but it’s actually the premise for the BBC Three’s one-off show Being Human. I’ve only watched the first part of the show, but I like it so far. Plus, how geeky cool is that? A show about a vampire, a ghost and a werewolf sharing a flat and trying to make their way in the world.

To wit: Mitchell (Flanagan) and George (Tovey) are two 20-something lads who, like any of their peers, would love to hit the town, pull girls and spend evenings down the pub.

Mitchell is a hospital cleaner, good looking, laid back and a hit with the ladies. Oh, and he’s a blood-sucking vampire.

Mitchell’s friend George works in the same hospital as a porter. He’s an awkward but loveable geek who was befriended by Mitchell two years ago.

George was heartbroken after he had to move away from the love of his life; he had to leave before she discovered that at every full moon, he sprouts a snout, grows a very hairy back and transforms into a werewolf.

Executive producer for Touchpaper Television Rob Pursey says: “Being Human is a warm, funny, aspirational drama with an irresistible twist. Mitchell, George and Annie are supernatural creatures but they are desperate be a part of a life we all take for granted.

“It’s an exciting and contemporary take on friendship and finding your way in the world. Toby Whithouse’s witty, emotionally powerful script makes these three misfits come alive, even though they’re far from human.”

It’s a one-off, which means that there was only one 60-minute episode of the show.  The BBC is notorious for short television shows, their seasons last about six-episodes rather than the standard 13 or 22 that US television seasons last.

Watch parts 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

We’ve been concentrating a lot on the new Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku project at FOX, Dollhouse. But FOX also has a new show in the works from god J.J. Abrams. It’s called Fringe and is sort of an FBI investigation show, revolving around mystery and science.

Hercules at AICN put it best: “What if somebody at ABC said, “Y’know, David Lynch is a fucking genius. Maybe we should give his show a year in a decent timeslot and see what happens.”

What if someone at Fox said, “Y’know, what would happen if Scully started remembering all the crazy shit she saw in the previous episode every week?”

What if somebody at ABC said, “Y’know, J.J., instead of exploring Sydney’s relationship with her boring fucking half-sister for two seasons, how about digging a little deeper into this Milo Rambaldi business?”

Press Release: From J.J. Abrams (”Lost”), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind “Star Trek,” “Mission: Impossible III” and “Alias,” comes a new drama that will thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between science fiction and reality.

When an international flight lands at Boston’s Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (newcomer Anna Torv) is called in to investigate. After her partner, Special Agent John Scott (Mark Valley, “Boston Legal”), is nearly killed during the investigation, a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to DR. Walter Bishop (John Noble, “Lord of the Rings”), our generation’s Einstein. There’s only one catch: he’s been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son Peter (Joshua Jackson, “Dawson’s Creek”) in to help.

When Olivia’s investigation leads her to manipulative corporate executive Nina Sharp (Blair Brown, “Altered States”), our unlikely trio along with fellow FBI Agents Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick, “The Wire”), Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo, “Oz”) and Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”) will discover that what happened on Flight 627 is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth.

I had high hopes for the CW’s remake of 90210 when it was announced Cupid and Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas was going to be the creative force behind this show.  Alas, he’s nowhere to be found and the new showrunners are Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah.  The duo were writer’s on the short lived Judd Apatow high school show Freaks & Geeks, but they are also responsible for Life As We Know It.

The thing is, if you watch reruns of the original Beverly Hills 90210, created by Darren Star, it wasn’t that good.  Poorly written and acted, but for whatever reason there is something that works about the show.  Ian Zeiring perhaps?

And obviously the template of following around salacious rich kids works.  See The OC and Gossip Girl. Regardless, the update with some random people like Aunt Becky from Full House and Jessica “Lucille Bluth” Walters and Michael from The Wire (dear god how do you go from that show to this?  They should have worked in the plot line that his character was the same and Michael got adopted by a rich family and had to move from inner-city Baltimore) doesn’t look promising.  I can honestly say, this is one show I’m not anticipating in the fall.

It’s funny cause you don’t know what they’re saying and it’s sort of racist. What? No Hello Kitty? Still, Kristen Wiig needs to get her own sitcom cause she’s an SNL MVP. Also, it’s worth watching for the hilarious introduction by Ricky Gervais, which only confirms that the original is still the better of the two.

The damn is starting to break on Joss Whedon’s upcoming FOX show Dollhouse, which was conceived alongside star Eliza Dusku.  The idea for the show came during a lunch meeting between the two, according to an interview that Joss gave with the LA Times.

“But I was trying to get a movie off the ground, “Goners.” “Wonder Woman” had already crashed and burned. “Goners” they had already lost control of the instruments, but who knows? So things were not that auspicious, but I was working it. Not shunning television but not intending to come back. But as we discussed Eliza’s predicament, I started giving her some ideas about what I thought she would need: a genre show so she could be political without being partisan; an ensemble show so she didn’t have to be in every scene. And I thought about it for a bit and then literally went, oh, curse word, I just came up with the show and the title. And it was the title that I knew I was doomed. Because if you have the title, you know it’s right. And that’s just bad,” said Whedon.

“When we really discussed the whole thing, she said, ‘You’re talking about my life. In my life, everybody tells me who they want me to be while I try and figure out who I am.’ And that spoke to me. I agreed that I’ll write and maybe oversee the pilot. So I went home and said, ‘Honey, I’m sorry, I accidentally agreed to a Fox show at lunch.’”

The show is set up as a midseason replacement that will air as the lead in show to 24, probably as good as any time slot as you could hope.  It’s just dependent on how fatigued the audience is for 24. The past two seasons have been pretty poor quality wise.  Regardless, it’s a good slot for Joss and Eliza’s new show.

What’s interesting though, is that FOX is going to try a new advertising model with Dollhouse and the J.J. Abrams produced Fringe. According to the Hollywood Reporter, FOX has decided to show only five-minutes worth of commercials during the hour-long shows, which is significantly less than the standard 15-20 minutes.

“It’s a simple concept and potentially revolutionary,” Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori said. “We’re going to have less commercials, less promotional time, and less reason for viewers to use the remote. We’re going to redefine the viewing experience.”

But ultimately that depends on the quality of the shows.  Whedon and Abrams are two of the best in the business and now FOX needs to stand by them and support the shows by guaranteeing a full season order.  That’s one reason why people don’t become invested in shows right away, because there is no guarantee that the show will air for more than five or six episodes.

So, what can you expect of Dollhouse? Here’s the press release:

Joss Whedon, creator of groundbreaking cult favorites “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Firefly,” returns to television and reunites with fellow “Buffy” alumna Eliza Dushku for a thrilling new drama, DOLLHOUSE.

ECHO (Dushku) is an “Active,” a member of a highly illegal and underground group who have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas. Confined to a secret facility known as the “Dollhouse,” Echo and the other Actives including SIERRA (Dichen Lachman, “Neighbours”) and VICTOR (Enver Gjokaj, “The Unit”) carry out engagements assigned by ADELLE (Olivia Williams, “X-Men: The Last Stand,” “Rushmore”), one of the Dollhouse leaders.

The engagements cater to the wealthy, powerful and connected, and require the Actives to immerse themselves in all manner of scenarios romantic, criminal, uplifting, dangerous, comical and the occasional “pro bono” good deed. After each scenario, Echo, always under the watchful eye of her handler BOYD (Harry Lennix, “Commander in Chief,” 24), returns to the mysterious Dollhouse where her thoughts, feelings and experiences are erased by TOPHER (Fran Kranz, “Welcome to the Captain”), the Dollhouse’s genius programmer. Echo enters the next scenario with no memory of before. Or does she?

As the series progresses, FBI Agent PAUL SMITH (Tahmoh Penikett, “Battlestar Galactica”) pieces together clues that lead him closer to the Dollhouse, while Echo stops forgetting, her memories begin to return and she slowly pieces together her mysterious past. DOLLHOUSE revolves around Echo’s blossoming self-awareness and her desire to discover her true identity. But with each new engagement, comes a new memory and increased danger inside and outside the Dollhouse.

Sounds intrigueing and the premise leaves lots of room for Whedon to balance the mythology of the show with stand alone episodes.  Something he did to great effect with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Given the time he no doubt would have done it superbly with Firefly.

Update: Seat42F has an exclusive clip of the show.  I’m at work so I haven’t been able to watch.  The clip appears to be a finished scene and is, in all likelihood, out of context.  Take it for what you would. 

Zap2It has script reviews for two highly anticipated television projects. The first is for Fringe by JJ Abrams, starring Joshua Jackson (Pacey) and the second is Dollhouse by Joss Whedon, starring Eliza Dushku (whom I attended high school with when she was there and not filming some movie or whatnot).

Both series will air on FOX in the fall season.

Fringe is “going to be sold as FOX’s attempt to reclaim the X-Files demo that the network has jeopardized with the swift cancellation of too many shows from folks like Whedon and Tim Minear. The script lends itself to a large-scale pilot and it should leave viewers knowing exactly what to expect in the episodes to come, which is more than can be said for.” Also, getting into the JJ Abrams business is a good thing. His track record is fairly spotless and his following is very loyal.

The same thing can be said about Joss Whedon. His following is not so much loyal as it is messianic. But his track record with FOX is horrible. They’ve canceled every good show he’s done and not just his shows, but shows from Whedon’s acolytes like Tim Minear.

“While recognizably Whedonesque, Dollhouse finds Joss going in different direction, one that may be less quippy and less plot-driven than some might expect. The fans will still love it, I suspect, but will Dollhouse be able to find an audience beyond the Whedonverse? I’m not sure. So this could be one of those “Enjoy it while you’ve got it” gems.” That doesn’t sound good. Well it does, it just sounds like it will get canceled too soon.

In case you’re wondering how these could potentially play out as pilots, the article goes on to expound on what makes a compelling pilot.

A good pilot should do one of two things: It should either lay out the blueprint for the rest of the series or it should intrigue you so much that you can’t wait for the second episode. Fringe falls into the first category. It leaves almost nothing to the imagination in terms of what’s coming next. Dollhouse falls into the second category.

The radio show is also a Showtime show. I’ve yet to see the television show, since, um, I don’t have Showtime. However, people rave about it and hopefully I’ll be able to pick it up on DVD. After watching this animated short from Season Two (it premiered on May 4 and the second episode was last night) I really want to see this show. I love how this video illustrates the hazy notion of memory and storytelling and why both are so essential to the human DNA.

Redeye is holding their annual “Best Character on TV” tournament.  Last year Kara Thrace, aka “Starbuck” took home the win convincingly over Jack Bauer.  So the bad news is she won’t be back to defend her title.  The good news is first round voting is under way.

Polls close at 2 p.m. CST on Friday, May 9.  And if the tournament doesn’t come down to Benjamin Linus vs. Barney Stinson I’m going to be very upset.  And you don’t want me to be upset.