TONIGHT: end of the road for NBC's Chuck

Tonight, NBC finally puts Chuck out of its misery. The action comedy, which has somehow lasted five seasons, goes out with a two hour finale (8 p.m., NBC/CHCH).
Never a hit, the series about a Geek Squad computer nerd-turned-international spy (played by Zachary Levi) was on the verge of cancellation after two seasons when fans mounted a unique save-this-show campaign. They targeted one of the sponsors, Subway. The sandwich maker got behind the series, contributing to the cost one five dollar foot long at a time and Chuck stayed on the air.
Chuck also stuck thanks to social networking. The series ranked among TV's Top-20 in SocialSceneTV ratings. All those tweets and posts are getting more and more attention from networks.
Not that the series was ever easy to find. NBC kept it around but you had to look for it. It never emerged as more than a cult show. It ranked 65th among U.S. prime time series after its first season and was down to 83 after season four.
It helped that some powerful critics loved the show. Mo Ryan, Alan Sepinwall and Jamie Poniewozik all hailed as as one of the most winning and entertaining shows on television. Go to Wikipedia and check out the number of press articles on the series at the bottom "References" section. This show got a crazy amount of ink.
The cast, including Canadian Vik Sahay (part of the show's "Nerd Herd") were always mobbed at Comic-Con. For those that loved it, it was their favourite show.
Still, at five million viewers a week, NBC just wasn't prepared to keep it on life support. Episodes never seemed to be ordered 22 at a time. Only 13 episodes were ordered this season (bringing the total to 91) and the series was basically buried in a Friday night death slot. NBC chairman Robert Greenblatt was unequivocal about Chuck's fate at the recent TCA press tour, basically saying it was dead dead dead.
Have to admit I was a lot like most viewers--I barely watched the show. The premise was fun, the show was well cast, but there was always something else on. CBC's recent attempt with InSecurity showed just how tricky it is to pull off the whole spy spoof thing.

Levi with spy-licious co-star Yvonne Strahovski

Chuck was produced on a Hollywood soundstage on the Warner Bros. lot, and those set visits were always a good time. The Big Box Future Shop-like store was loaded with real electronic goodies. You felt like anybody in the cast could re-boot your laptop if you needed help.
Lead Zach Levi has also earned a rep as TCA favourite. The 31-year-old always seems to close the place at NBC press tour parties and was among the last to leave this year at the Caltech bash. Levi, in fact, continued to party later at the Langham hotel bar and was set to launch into song with one of the promising young cast members from NBC's upcoming musical Smash when a few Pasadena locals whipped out their iPhone cameras and stopped them both dead in their tracks.
Levi told a few of us he was looking at a few things but still had no concrete plans post-Chuck. Those who have heard him sing say the dude would be a hell of an addition to Smash. That would be cool, but Levi should know he's already earned a backstage pass to future press tour parties.

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This week's podcast: Bueller... Bueller?

This week, CHML's Scott Thompson wanted to know how much 30 second spots will be going for on this year's Super Bowl. I didn't know so I said forty-five dollars. Amazingly, this got a laugh.
The actual average amount Fox is charging advertisers is $3.5 million per 30-second spot. One reportedly sold for $4 million. Both figures are new highs for the broadcast, the most-watched TV show of the year in the U.S., fetching an audience of more than 100 million viewers.
One Super Bowl ad is already being teased on the Internet. It features Matthew Broderick reprising his role as Ferris Bueller, 25 years later. Check it out:

 Don`t know what he's advertising but guesses so far include a Ferrari or Chicago tourism. Please don't be for Ciallis.
Scott asks about a whole bunch of other stuff. You can listen in here.

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Canada left out of Steinberg's Inside Comedy

Larry David, Tim Conway and David Steinberg taking TCA Inside Comedy

Tonight, Inside Comedy premieres on Showtime. It`s hosted and executive produced by Winnipeg-native David Steinberg. It`s funny and insightful and offers great up close and personal moments with comedy icons like Martin Short (from Hamilton, Ont.). Too bad it isn't inside Canada. No Canadian broadcaster has picked it up yet, at least not as far as Steinberg knows. And that's not funny.
C'mon, The Movie Network/Movie Central. C'mon Comedy Network. Take us Inside.
Ironically, Steinberg told me two weeks ago after his TCA Showtime session that that outsider perspective is what distinguishes Canadian comedy. "You're up against the window with your hands up against it, looking inside," he says.
A former Second City improviser, he takes credit for launching the careers of Short as well as other SCTV cast members. Indeed, prior to SCTV, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin and Short all appeared on Steinberg's 1976 Canadian effort The David Steinberg Show, which can be seen currently on Comedy Gold.
The new series is essentially Steinberg sitting opposite other comedians talking comedy. Short appears on the Inside Comedy episode with Brad Garrett and Billy Crystal; they trade stories about Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Frank Sinatra.
Tim Conway was paired with Ellen DeGeneres in another episode I screened, but the most illuminating may be Steinberg's sit down with Larry David. Steinberg has directed several Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes over the years and has a nice rapport with David, whose remarkable candor extends to his own idiosyncrasies. Fun to watch and listen to, especially for comedy fans.
David's former collaborator Jerry Seinfeld, Martin Mull, Carl Reiner, Robin Williams, Mel Brooks, Gary Shandling, Sarah Silverman, Chris Rock, Steven Wright and co-executive producer Steve Carell are also featured on the series, which premieres tonight at 11 p.m. on Showtime.

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TONIGHT: Kiefer Sutherland connects in Touch

Touch twosome David Mazouz and Kiefer Sutherland

Not many stars could get away with headlining a TV show called Touch. You wouldn't catch, say, Charlie Sheen doing a show called Touch.
Maybe that was what Kiefer Sutherland, who stars in tonight's sneak peak at Touch, was saying to Sheen two weeks ago when the two old scoundrels caught up with each other in the dark back behind the Castle Green in Pasadena. It was the night of the Fox TCA press tour party. Sutherland had just walked the red carpet out front. Sheen, who is returning from Warlockville to headline the upcoming FX comedy Anger Management, was snuck in the back door for a private, low key kind of press scrum.
The two--who have known each other since they starred together in Young Guns in 1988--stood and spoke ear to ear for a minute or two before Sutherland disappeared and Sheen got down to the business of rebuilding his brand. I tracked Sutherland down later, sitting way the other side of the landmark Pasadena apartment, sitting on the patio with a publicist. I approached and asked for a word, but he begged off, said he was tired. I did the Canadian thing and asked if he was still playing hockey. "Every Monday night," he assured me. And that was that.
Sutherland gets plenty of respect at press tour because he`s earned it. He never once missed a tour while 24 was on the air, always crediting critics for getting the series past a touchy first season.
Besides, he probably was tired. Few stars who work an hour long series, especially one as demanding as 24, are eager to jump right back into another one. And while he`s not right back at it, it doesn`t seem like its been a year-and-a-half already since Jack Bauer had his last bad day. (Another is scheduled soon; a 24 movie is set to start shooting in May.)
My guess, and that's all it is, is that Sutherland is somebody who has to be busy. He sure doesn't need the money, having made a fortune as the star and executive producer of 24. (He's also a producer on Touch.) Whatever his motivation, this series looks like it could be worthy of his talents.
Fox network boss Kevin Reilly admitted at press tour he was at first reluctant to cast Sutherland right back into the network drama pool. Bauer was such an overpowering, almost iconic character, some viewers may have a hard time buying Sutherland in anything else. Touch is so different, however, Reilly went ahead and ordered the series.

It does take a while to get past Bauer while watching tonight`s advance screening (at 9 p.m. on Fox and Global; the series will begin a regular run in March). There is a scene or two where his single dad character is roughed up and you just expect Jack Bauer to rip the other dude's intestines out.
Sutherland says he didn't choose this role because it was different than Bauer. He was just blown away by the script.
Tonight's pilot is exciting in ways 24 was not. All about humanity and connectivity, it stars Sutherland as Martin Bohm, a guy who has been crushed by fate. His wife was lost in one of the Twin Towers (a detail that seems a bit piled on). Once a reporter, he's down to working as an airport handler to try and make ends meet to help raise his 11-year-old son Jake (David Mazouz). The child is locked in a world of numbers due to severe autism.
His father can not touch him. He feels he can't reach him. The numbers his son keeps leaving, however, may be clues to their connectivity.

Wow. Always with the jokes.

Beautiful Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Undercovers) plays a child care worker who helps put some pieces of this puzzle together. Danny Glover guests as an expert who knows all about these kids with numbers. The showrunner is Tim Kring, and the pilot has many of the earmarks of his earlier series, Heroes--international language and interwoven storylines, dense storytelling.
There is a lot of emotion packed into tonight's pilot. A few too many side stories are packed in as well. Too much hinges on the world's most clear-headed international phone operator.
Still, watch if only to see all of this sorrow and anger and weakness and compassion and love and hurt and hope and triumph flash across Sutherland's face. He's back playing another hero, but this one is nothing like Jack Bauer. It's a gutsy and impressive performance, one that makes Touch touching and compelling. As Bauer would say, check it out, "Dammit!"

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TONIGHT: Helgenberger checks out of CSI

Wednesday is Marg Helgenberger's last day on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. After 12 seasons and over 250 episodes, the 52-year-old actress is the latest to leave the long-running forensic crime drama. Her final episode is entitled, "Willows in the Wind" (10 p.m., CTV and CBS).
Helgenberger is leaving to open a string of fast food restaurants. They will feature the "Helgenburger," a double stacked patty with or without dressing.
Actually, no, I just made that up. For more on Helgenberger's departure, read this story I wrote which appears in today's Toronto Star.
Hour-long dramas are a marathon, with eight day per episode schedules and plenty of long days in and out of trailers. Still, is leaving a hit show a smart move? I remember years ago asking William Devane why, after eight or nine seasons, he was still doing Knots Landing. I'll never forget his answer: "Never get off the gravy train until the gravy train stops running."
Still, hats off to Helgenberger, always a friendly face at TCA press tours. Earlier this week, she received her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
 
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VIDEO: Are you there at NBC Lenny Clarke?

Lenny Clarke is one of the all time funniest TCA press conference dudes ever. His sessions with former Rescue Me boss and co-star Denis Leary are legendary. Never has the F-bomb been dropped so many times in one session. So his appearance at the Winter 2012 TCA press tour was the best part, for me at least, of NBC's session promoting Are You There Chelsea?
The new sitcom, based on Chelsea Handler's semi-autobiographical book Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea, airs Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. on NBC.
Clarke, also fondly remembered for his part on The John Larroquette Show, is half the man he used to be--liberally. He's lost 193 lbs--he probably lost another three in the time it took to read this far. Basically he's lost the combined weight of the entire cast of the upcoming NBC Broadway series Smash. He did it with the help of Weight Watchers and appeared as a spokesman for the product. He says Leary helped shame him into getting in shape.
The above clip features Clarke, as well as supermodel Elle Macpherson, at the NBC TCA party. It was held at a stately alumni house on the CalTech campus in Pasadena. Be warned: Clarke does drop the F-Bomb. Listen also for the string quartet who worked the party and only played the classics--including hits from The Beatles and Nirvana.

James, Son of Chad, a hit at Hallmark TCA bash

Bill Harris, James Patrick Stuart, Howard Benjamin

The last few years, one of the highlights of the TCA Winter press tour has been the "Hallmark moment." That's when the U.S. cable Hallmark Channel hosts an elegant dinner for TV press at the stately Tournament of Roses House in Pasadena.
Hallmark doesn't cross the border but many of its TV-movie offerings find their way north on Super Channel and other Canadian premium services. If you are wondering where the TV-movie went to die, it went to Hallmark. They crank out a few dozen TV-movies a year, many tied to the same seasonal hook as their ubiquitous greeting cards.
The titles alone are enough to cause cavities: Cupid, Chasing Leprechauns, A Taste of Romance, Operation Cupcake, Always a Bride, Puppy Love. This is Chick Flick central, as far removed from WWE Raw as you can get.
The Crown Media company is available in 42 million U.S. homes. A sequel to their highest-rated TV-movie, Luke Perry's Old West epic Goodnight for Justice, airs this coming Saturday.
The Tournament of Roses House is the perfect setting for a Hallmark party. An elder in a blue blazer sticks a red rose decal on your lapel before you walk in past the solid oak front door. There's a chamber quartet in the main foyer. Upstairs is packed with Rose Bowl memorabilia. You feel you are at a Republican fundraising convention.
Many of the stars of the upcoming TV-movies are at the event, most a few years removed from their network prime. (Then again, so are many of us who are TCA members.) Ageless Jane Seymour is a Hallmark regular. Valerie Harper was also at last week's dinner, as was Dean Cain, Kristy Swanson, Candice Cameron Bure (married to  Battle of the Blades' champ Valeri Bure), Perry, Adrain Pasder, Joely Fisher, Genie Francis and Ted McGinley.
Former Fox bad boy Jamie Kennedy was also in the Hallmark house, a bit of a shocker. This isn't exactly his Jackass-y kind of thing, but, hey, work's work. Kennedy is clearly part of Hallmark's bid to move beyond their Boomer base.

Upstairs at the Rose House: Go State

Being on Hallmark may have been seen as last stop on the career coral a few years ago but, really, as median viewer ages continue to rise, the entire TCA network press event has turned into an oldies tour. Session after session, one star or another from the past is up on the panel, be it 80-year-old Larry Hagman from the TNT revival of Dallas to Sally Kellerman, 74, among the voice cast of FX's Unsupervised. Betty White, at 90, was one of the biggest draws of the entire press tour. Actors now go from a Hallmark TCA press event one year to a NBC TCA event the next, as Tom Cavanagh did this tour. (He's now in USA Network's Royal Pains.)
Last week at the dinner, I happened to sit next to James Patrick Stuart, one of the stars of A Taste of Romance. The TV-movie, co-starring Teri Polo, was playing that same night.
Stuart wasn't the biggest name in the room but he was a good fit at our table, especially after me and fellow British Invasion junkie Bill Harris of the Toronto Sun discovered that the guy's dad was Chad Stuart from Chad & Jeremy.
Here's how bad it is for 50-ish TV critics who grew up Beatles freaks. Right away I go, "Chad & Jeremy--The Redcoats from The Dick Van Dyke Show!" Harris's reaction--"Catwoman stole their voices on Batman!"

Dessert: Hallmark really does spoil us

Egged on by press tour legend Howard Benjamin (The Interview Factory), Stuart fed our nerd fix with stories of George Harrison and David Crosby visiting the family home in California in the '60s and '70s. That same house was later sold to David Cassidy! Stuart grew up on TV sets, attending tapings of shows like Mork & Mindy and Happy Days as a lad.
The amiable actor broke out on the soap opera All My Children and was in the cast of one of those great Fox sitcoms that should have lasted a lot longer, Andy Richter Controls the Universe.  He has made several memorable guest starring appearances on several sitcoms. One as Elaine's egocentric boyfriend on Seinfeld and another as a gay ski instructor hot for Nile's ass in Frasier. He can also be seen in the recurring role as a public defender on CSI.
Chad & Jeremy are still performing, he says. Maybe we'll see them next TCA tour at the NBC sessions.

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