Thursday, January 08, 2004

TONS of things to read (none being the magazine stuff I promised you...soon, I promise!). www.jumptheshark.com -- Pinpoints the precise moment a TV show overstayed its welcome. Includes a great talk-back section. Unfortunately, some people think The OC has already butted heads with the shark, put your opinion in! ____________________ Watercooler by Damian Holbrook at TVGuide.com The O.C. And the award for quote of the night goes to... Seth Cohen! "Luke has a gay dad" is officially my new mantra for anyone who annoys me. And speaking of, Oliver Trask needs to go. I don't care if he does know the band Rooney, there is no way that stoner needle-neck snowboarded the Alps. Marissa had better wise up before she falls for one of his lines and ruins things with the best thing to happen to wife-beaters since Stanley Kowalski. As for The Golden Girl references, yes, Summer, you are Blanche. And for your information, Anna, we can all relate to that bunch of 70-year-olds, hon. ____________________ The O.C.'s official website has a new beginning intro, Seth Cohen wallpaper, “I’m Shaking” from Rooney video and a chance to win an iPOD ____________________ OCWeekly.com 14 episodes of The O.C. in 1,260 words The Year in Soaps by Matt Coker Perpetually mopey teen Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) is up on charges after getting caught in a stolen car jacked by his big brother, but idealistic public defender Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher and his eyebrows, a million miles from Sex, Lies and Videotape and American Beauty) manages to spring the troubled teen and return him to his Chino dump. But Ryan’s alcoholic mom has skipped with her abusive boyfriend, so Sandy brings Ryan home to his Newport Beach manse—and the greatest Fox network teen soaper set in Orange County is on, baby! Sandy’s nerdy son, Seth (Adam Brody), a master of the one-liner, latches onto good-with-his-mitts Ryan, and next-door-neighbor-who-appears-to-have-been-jerked-off-a-high-fashion-runway Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) has the hots for the new kid, despite his lack of actual dialogue. But just about everyone else gives "Chino" the stink eye or, in the case of teenage-testosterone receptacle Luke (Chris Carmack), an actual pummeling, preceded by the tres poetic, "Welcome to the O.C., bitch. This is how it’s done in Orange County." LOOK! QUICK!! IT’S A RARE REPRESENTATION OF OUR COUNTY’S LARGE AND GROWING HISPANIC POPULATION, EMBODIED BY ROSIE THE LATINA MAID!!! Sandy’s hot-when-the-camera-hits-her-right wife Kirsten (Kelly Rowan) doesn’t snuggle up to the idea of harboring a troubled Inland Empirian, so Ryno is foster-home bound until Seth and Luke’s supposed girlfriend Marissa sneak him into an unfinished model home owned by Orange County’s largest development company, which just so happens to be run by Kirsten and owned by Kirsten’s dad, Caleb Nichol (Alan Dale, channeling real-life Newport Beach megadeveloper Don Bren). Luke shows up at the model home to smash Ryan’s face but a fire breaks out, Ryan pulls Luke to safety, the cops arrive and Ryan’s got even more troubles until Seth, Marissa and Luke fess up to being involved, too. With Newport kids involved, charges must be dropped (see Gregory Haidl pot-bust stories by R. Scott Moxley in this newspaper). Ryan’s mom, Dawn Atwood (Daphne Ashbrook), suddenly appears to retrieve her son and take him back home to the 909, swearing that things will be better now that her smack daddy has split, but when Ma Atwood descends into a drunken stupor at a high-society gala chaired by Kirsten, Kirsten agrees with Sandy that they should take Ryan in for good. It’s also at that chi-chi event that the investment-scamming ways of Marissa’s dad, Jimmy Cooper (Tate Donovan), are made public. That drives away his wife (and Marissa’s mom), Julie (Melinda Clarke), who’s so accustomed to wealth that she denies her own Riverside roots. Jimmy seeks comfort from his childhood sweetheart, Kirsten, but she rejects his romantic advances. Caleb later pops into the Cohen home with a 24-year-old bombshell dangling from his arm. He’s pissed over the torched model home and angrier that his daughter has a live-in tenant from the 909. So Kirsten kinda quits the family business, Caleb gives his daughter the don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-in-the-ass treatment—and then they make up. In the Cohen pool house, Caleb’s honey makes out with Ryan. Marissa walks in on them, bolts in disgust and goes off to lose her virginity to stud muffin Luke. Seth, meanwhile, is finally poised to score with the girl of his boyhood dreams—and Marissa’s best gal pal—Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson, seen recently riding a bike with Brody on the cover of OC Weekly). But Summer can’t put aside Seth’s nerd rep. With Ryan, Marissa, Seth and Summer all at odds, they do what comes naturally: head for Tijuana, a last-weekend-before-school-starts "tradition" in the 949. It’s there that Marissa learns her parents are divorcing and that boyfriend Luke is cheating on her, so she goes off on a drunken, pill-poppin’ bender and OD’s in a TJ alley. After five weeks of baseball playoffs on Fox, we finally learn she pulled through, although she fails to acknowledge she’s one screwed-up chica. Sandy leaves the public defender’s office for a high-powered law firm, and one of his first cases pits him against Kirsten and Caleb, whose company plans to build on the mesa overlooking the ecologically sensitive Balboa Wetlands (think Don Bren builder-pal Don Koll and the Bolsa Chica Wetlands). Caleb, who apparently dumped the bombshell, hooks up with Julie. Marissa exchanges fluids with Ryan. Sandy fights off the advances of his smokin’-hot law partner Rachel (Bonnie Somerville). And virginal Seth is suddenly fighting off two tightly wrapped little numbers, Summer and Anna Stern (Samaire Armstrong). LOOK! IT’S ROSIE AGAIN!!! Sadly, Rosie’s off screen before she can hook up with anyone. Ryan and Marissa pay a Thanksgiving visit to his brother Trey Atwood (Bradley Stryker) at the Chino men’s prison. Bro has a problem: in order to stop the beatings inmates are giving him for welching on $6,000 in gambling losses outside, Ryan must deliver a stolen car to a chop shop. Over at the Cohen manse, Rachel comes over for Thanksgiving, but Sandy and Kirsten are really trying to set her up with fellow invitee Jimmy. Things get complicated when Caleb arrives unannounced with Julie. Bouncing around the house like a pinball amid all this is Seth, who has Anna in his bedroom and Summer in the pool house, both waiting to dry hump him into real manhood. Ryan delivers the car, but Marissa has to save him from chop-shop thugs. After their return to OC, Ryan is partnered in a history-class project with former mortal enemy Luke. They get all palsy-walsy and head to a car dealership owned by Luke’s father, whom the boys unwittingly catch in the gayest gay kiss in prime time since Uncle Bill slipped Mr. French the tongue in that lost Family Affair episode. When word gets out that Luke’s dad has a secret life, meatheads from the crosstown rival high school beat the crap out of him and Ryan—because, you know, the next worst thing to being a fag is being a fag’s son or the fag’s son’s new best friend. They’re fully healed by Chrismukkah, "the greatest superholiday known to man," according to its inventor, Seth, who is, after all, the child of an OC WASP princess and Bronx Jewboy. His holiday mood, though, is spoiled when he’s forced to choose once and for all between Anna and Summer—and he winds up with bubkes, which is how much Caleb, who was in line to make $250 million off Balboa Heights, ends up selling the ecologically sensitive land for after legal eagle Sandy sets his eyes on damaging insider information supplied by Kirsten. Marissa, who can’t deal with the holidays amid her parental unit’s split, does what any privileged, model-quality teen around here would do: turn to the bottle, something that nearly drives Ryan away as he has his own holiday-season issues involving an alcoholic mother. She saves her relationship—and perhaps her life—by finally agreeing to seek therapy, and it is in her shrink’s waiting room that she encounters the googly eyes and inane small talk of fellow patient Oliver (Taylor Handley). Just in time for New Year’s Eve, Kirsten’s hell-raising, much younger—and previously unmentioned—sister Haley Nichols (Amanda Righetti) shows up and convinces the Cohens to get out of their marital rut by attending a swinging party—only it’s really a swingers party. Haley then locks Seth and Ryan in the pool house and throws a rager in the Cohen manse, but among her guests are tough chicks who want to kick her ass. She turns to the boys in the pool house for help, and they cut power to the manse, forcing everyone to leave—except for a threesome Sandy later walks in on in his bedroom after he and Kirsten had left a whole bunch of threesomes behind at the parental-swap orgy. Ryan then darts off to plant a midnight kiss on Marissa, who’d gone strapless to a party in the Four Seasons penthouse thrown by mega-loaded Oliver, who was angling to pinch hit with his own lips. It sucks to be you, Richie Rich: Chino wins! Oh, forgot: put on the crappiest KROQ music and go back and read this over again. ____________________ Washington Post THE LIST: What's Out and In for 2004? By Hank Stuever Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, Jan. 1, 2004; Page C01 Out In Jennifer Garner Mischa Barton "Nip/Tuck" "The O.C." ____________________ Star-Ledger TV scene Sunday, December 28, 2003 BY ALAN SEPINWALL Star-Ledger Staff Best intentionally funny soap opera: Fox's addictive "The O.C." could simply aspire to be a campy "90210" for the new millennium, but thanks to leading men Peter Gallagher, Benjamin McKenzie and, especially, Adam Brody, it's that rare sudser about the rich and fabulous that audiences can laugh with, not at. ____________________ Philadelphia Inquirer The thrill is gone Sorry, "West Wing." You've gotten old and cranky. No wonder "The O.C." seems so fresh and attractive. By Karen Heller Inquirer Staff Writer Breaking up is a wretched thing to do. The act can take years, after much pain, suffering, hand-wringing, labored conversations and, quite often, the substitution of a younger, more comely alternative. After four years and a mere nine episodes this season, plus the jettisoning of creator Aaron Sorkin, NBC's The West Wing is, sadly, losing its appeal. It's jowly, saggy and darker - literally, as if it were lit with 40-watt bulbs. We're thinking of voting it out of office, in favor of Fox's - yes, Fox's - delicious, delightful, California-sunny and Arnold-confident soap The O.C., which airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays, the same time NBC's West Wing delivers gloom and doom on the Potomac. That show now lacks its trademark smart banter. No series, except for Sorkin's marvelous, short-lived Sports Night, did the walk-and-talk repartee better. The West Wing is preachy and high-minded. Life is already preachy and high-minded. Besides, that's what we have public television for. Saucy Stockard Channing, who did a delightful Nick and Nora turn with First Hubby Martin Sheen, was banished to a New Hampshire farm. Usually ebullient Bradley Whitford (Josh Lyman) was politically punished. Allison Janney (C.J. Cregg), the tube's Rosalind Russell, is now a snippy, hand-wringing, proselytizing martyr. She lectures everyone, including the president of the United States. Normally, I'm no quitter. Once started, books are finished. Movies end with the closing credits - with the exceptions of Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and John Landis' An American Werewolf in London. And television series are dutifully followed until the finale - even faltering series that don't deserve such loyalty, such as Dallas and Melrose Place. But West Wing has fierce competition this season: The O.C. is a refreshing treat with television's most eye-pleasing cast, beginning with the improbably beautiful Mischa Barton. The O.C. is funny. It's smart. It's decidedly hip, directed by Doug Liman of Swingers and headed, in part, by McG of Charlie's Angels. It's one of the few shows to deal with class issues. Plus, parents played by Peter Gallagher and Kelly Rowan, who engage in the kind of witty banter once heard on The West Wing, are as attractive and interesting as the teenagers. And there's love everywhere. The show is swimming in love. "Bad boy" Ryan (cute Benjamin McKenzie) and "nerd boy" Seth (equally cute Adam Brody) are brothers by chance, after Seth's father takes Ryan in off the wicked streets of Chino. Instead of becoming rivals, which would happen on other soaps, the two are fast friends. The nerd has two popular girls fighting over him, and the "bad boy" may be the sweetest person in Newport Beach. Despite having almost no villains, The O.C. is a soap that works. The West Wing began the season with a terrific episode in which Republican House Speaker John Goodman assumed presidential powers, then it went straight downhill. After a seemingly endless five-week hiatus - that's right, five weeks - The West Wing will return Jan. 7 with an appearance by Goodman. That night, The O.C. will return after the delightful Chrismukkah and New Year's episodes, and a three-week break. A torn viewer could watch one and record the other, but that seems like cheating. And, yes, some of us still don't know how to program the VCR. There's TiVo. But that assumes there's enough on television to justify TiVo. There isn't. Except Wednesdays at 9 p.m. There may be 50 ways to leave a lover, but a wilting TV show can be dumped with the flick of a clicker. ____________________ TeeVee.org This Is How We Do It In the O.C., Bitch by Lisa Schmeiser - August 13, 2003 In Comedy Central's vastly underrated Project Greenlight parody Contest Searchlight, Denis Leary asserts with a completely straight face that Peter Gallagher is the greatest actor in New York City. The ostensible joke was that this was Peter Gallagher we were talking about. Peter Gallagher and his eyebrows have been yoked together in the public imagination since about 1989 ("Sex, Lies and Videotape.") At one time, this could have been unfortunate, as I was too busy staring at the upper third of his face to notice whether Gallagher could actually act. Now, however, Gallagher has finally happened into a role that seems tailor-made for him and his eyebrows. As The O.C.'s well-meaning Sandy Cohen, a public defender who married extremely well, Gallagher uses those eyebrows to telegraph self-deluded earnestness. It works perfectly. Sandy Cohen is the plot device that sets The O.C. in motion: not only does he pluck teenaged hood Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) off the mean streets of Chino and transport him behind the Orange Curtain, he also represents the moral compromises OC elitists have to make to stay in their smug little community. Sandy's an idealist who can afford his self-righteousness because his wife bankrolls it; as a result, he's better at talking about his morals than he is at applying them. Anyone who knows about Orange County's reputation as a Republican stronghold can appreciate the irony in limousine liberal Sandy's characterization. However, The O.C. is a soap opera, so you don't need to spend an hour pondering the semiotics of Sandy Cohen. You can spend time wondering when Tate Donovan got old enough to believably play the father of a teenaged daughter. Donovan, who plays next-door neighbor and financial charlatan Jimmy Cooper, is married to shallow Julie (played by Melinda Clarke, whose portrayal is wickedly intelligent) and parenting a troubled teen who also happens to be the love interest of outsider/juvie Ryan. It's also worth noting that Jimmy apparently has a long and occasionally romantic history with Sandy's wife Kirsten (Kelly Ryan). Remember, this is a soap: everyone has to be connected to everyone else, or we wouldn't have any plot complications. The biggest complication is Ryan, whose obvious outsider status will make him a lightning rod for everyone else's issues with social class and morals. Fortunately, Ryan's up to the task; McKenzie plays him as a wary, smart kid with a healthy sense of humor, and aside from one asinine scene in which he frets about Social Security, he's likable. I don't know whose idea it was to have McKenzie underplay Ryan's prole-at-the-black-tie-benefit scenes, but it was a good one: we already expected Ryan to be cautious about negotiating a tony social event, so showing him as constantly and discreetly on his guard is just right. The real stranger-in-a-strange-land moments are those in which Ryan bonds with Sandy and Kirsten's son, Seth. The kid is sheltered, good-hearted and socially awkward; he's also perceptive enough to know he'll never be able to crack the high school social code, and sensitive enough to let that knowledge hurt him. Adam Brody plays Seth to perfection, and his chemistry with both Gallagher and McKenzie make all those male-bonding scenes much better than they have any right to be. The O.C. is shaping up as a guy's show: what interactions we see among the girls are as petty as anything on Melrose Place and the parent/child interaction between Julie Cooper and her daughter Marissa will inevitably inspire the girl to write a spite-fueled memoir during her creative nonfiction class in college. This may change over time -- if Sex and the City had any lasting influence, it's in proving that depictions of women's lasting friendship will pull in viewers. However, until The O.C. wises up, it's a little off-putting to watch the women preen while the men get all the real fun. Lest you think the entire show is actually a trenchant look at parent-child relationships, class issues and adult compromise, let me assure you: there is still plenty of silly, soapy fun. There is a fashion show in the premiere, after all. There's also a classic jocks vs. nerds thing going on, which is how Seth and Ryan get crunchy beatings while the show's chief teen nemesis Luke (Chris Carmack) taunts, "Welcome to the O.C., bitch! This is how it's done in Orange County." It is worth pointing out that Luke is about as street as B-Rad in Malibu's Most Wanted. The show's unintentional humor quotient is high (I've amused myself for days with variations on Luke's little quip), but it's not without its deliberate charms. And yes, you can see every plot twist coming. However, the actors -- among them Peter Gallagher, who may or may not be the best actor in New York -- make the ride to each inevitable development entertaining. The O.C. is frothy fun with a surprisingly solid center. Given the dismal execution of other recent prime-time soaps (Pasadena and Titans, I'm looking at you), it's delightful to find one that manages to get nearly everything right.

posted by Jen @ 10:41 AM |

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT! Tune in for the start for at least 7 brand new episodes. Look at our spoiler page if you dare to know the future. Like Rooney? You're love tonight's episode. Break in the new year with some brand new OC. The euphoria of the gorgeous cast and riveting storyline is guaranteed to last you longer than that fruit cake Aunt Berta brings every dang year. ____________________ E! Online's Poll 10. Favorite New Show 44.21% The O.C. 17.36% Nip/Tuck 16.86% Arrested Development 16.48% Joan of Arcadia 5.09% All About the Andersons 13. Buy More TVs: The Most Competitive Time Slot 29.96% Wednesdays, 9 p.m.: The O.C. vs. Angel vs. The Bachelor vs. The West Wing 26.13% Thursdays, 8 p.m.: Friends vs. Survivor: Pearl Island 22.46% Sundays, 9 p.m.: Alias vs. Malcolm in the Middle & Arrested Development vs. all those HBO shows 16.77% Thursdays, 9 p m.: CSI vs. Will & Grace 4.68% Tuesdays, 9 p.m.: Frasier vs. 24 vs. The Guardian 14. Hottest Small-Screen Pair 34.93% Nick & Jessica, Newlyweds 23.73% Seth & Summer, The O.C. 19.01% Clark & Lana, Smallville 14.84% Ruben Studdard & Clay Aiken, American Idol 7.49% Trista & Ryan, The Bachelorette ____________________ More from E! (check local listings) It's Time to Look Back at the Celebs, the Stories and the Scandals of 2003 Remember when, like, everyone was wrapped up in Jen & Ben's nuptial nonsense? How 'bout Paris Hilton's, um, starring role on the Internet? And who could forget the first time you met the Queer Eye guys? If it happened in '03, we were there. And we're hitting rewind on all of the biggest news stories, stars, gossip and everything else worth knowing from the past 12 months in E! News Live Year in Review. The hourlong wrap-up will cover it all--the good, the bad and the Gigli. We'll be saying hello to new faces (Keira Knightley, The O.C. kids) and goodbye to old friends (John Ritter, Bob Hope). If Jessica Simpson said it incorrectly, Michael Jackson was accused of it or Britney kissed it--we've got it. So, tune in--you won't want to miss this! ____________________

posted by Jen @ 7:58 AM |

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

From Kristin at E! Online From mrspaceywitter : Scoop on The O.C.? MAJOR SPOILER ALERT! I hear Seth is going to do the nastaaayyy with one of the girls, and it is actually quite nasty at first...as in awkward and uncomfortable and icky. Seth feels a bit inadequate because it's his first time (not hers) and talks to Ryan about the whole escapade. But alas! Never you fear--they do bump and grind again (Seth and the girl, not Seth and Ryan), and the second time around, it's most magical.

posted by Jen @ 10:36 AM |

From Kristin at E! Online High-Resolutions: Just in case any of you TV execs, writers, producers and so forth are struggling to clarify your priorities for 2004, I've got a few suggestions for network New Year's resolutions: • Give Alias a good lead-in--Karen Sisco, anyone? • Let Queer Eye's Fab Five do some Peter Gallagher manscaping. • Find decent homes for Miss Match and Tru Calling--anywhere but the time slots they're livin' in now. • At long last, put Good Morning, Miami out of its misery. • Bring back Keen Eddie and Skin. • Stop stunt casting reality "stars." • Cast Adam Brody (The O.C.'s Seth Cohen) in everything. • And make him shirtless. • And make him mine (AMEN! You go sistah!). ____________________ From TVGuide.com Insider The Resolutions Will Be Televised The O.C. will air daily. Maybe more often than that, because it is the coolest primetime soap in, like, ever. Way wittier than 90210 even aspired to be, Fox's smash has introduced into the pop-culture lexicon more cute catchphrases and insider terminology than us at TVGO (and we don't have to tell you, that's sayin' somethin'! We don't have to tell you that, right? Whew!). Why, it's a wonder we survived without Chrismukkah. Seriously — those old holidays? Eww.

posted by Jen @ 9:14 AM |

Monday, January 05, 2004

Here's a Holly (Ashley Hartman) update for you. The OC Party Girl (and ex-friend to Marissa and Summer) has recently posed for Maxim Magazine. Check out the great pics here @ Maxim Online

posted by Erin @ 12:48 PM |

Sorry for no posts recently. I will update as soon as I can. Been busy moving into a house, you know how it is (or maybe you don't *shrug*). I will update you on what magazines have pics and mentions. Here's something to tide you over for now: From Kristin at E! Online From Rachel: What is the latest scoop with Seth and Summer on The O.C.? I've heard that they make out in the 18th episode or thereabouts. And despite that kiss with Anna, as I mentioned last week, she returns to the East Coast toward the end of the season--on or about the 20th ep, I've heard. ____________________ From Matt Roush (Televisionary) at TVGuide.com (not all completely about the OC but makes mentions of them) Question: I've come to the conclusion that The O.C. has to be one of the more subversive shows on TV. It's touted by both Fox and the media as a salacious nighttime soap but really it's a paean to fidelity and traditional values. Marissa leaves her philandering drunk of a boyfriend for one who helps her get treatment for her problems. Sandy and Kirsten go to a swingers party but ultimately go home together. Even the story line with Seth and his two loves has been framed as being about Seth's need to grow up and make a choice. For a soap opera, there's been no bed-hopping on the part of the principle characters. Even the teens have been uniformly celibate except for an experience by Marissa that was hardly an encouragement to teen sex. I wonder if the producers set about to undermine some of the conventions of the soap genre, or if Fox just felt it couldn't sell a show about the joys of monogamous, responsible relationships and instead decided to play up the sensational aspects? Certainly it's a hoot to watch the commercials, which make the show look like a step below softcore porn, and then see the themes in the actual show. — Jeff Matt: The fact that even the more titillating elements of The O.C. lend themselves to moral life lessons is truly one of the most charming things about the show. In this regard, the show is hewing to the formula established by Beverly Hills, 90210, although when Kirsten's sister showed up just in time to cause trouble at New Year's, I couldn't help flashing back to Fox's tawdrier predecessor, Melrose Place. As for Fox's promotions: It's hardly new news that sex sells, but if The O.C. were just about trash and sleaze, it probably wouldn't be nearly as popular or as celebrated. (As for those who took me to task for not including it in my personal top-10 list of 2003, I figured I could wait a year. The show is enormous fun, but not as original and daring as the other first-year shows I included on the list: Arrested Development, Nip/Tuck and Joan of Arcadia. But if The O.C. sustains its guilty-pleasure qualities over the long run, which wouldn't surprise me, I have no doubt I'll be singing its praises more vocally next time around.) Question: I have been a TV Guide subscriber for years now, and something has really rubbed me the wrong way through the last year, so I had to get it off my chest. In the past months we have seen not one, but TWO TV Guide covers featuring The O.C., a show about rich white people bemoaning their lives. This has not surprised me, but it has disappointed me, especially since we had a great gem come to television earlier in the year with UPN's Platinum. The show, the scripts, the directing, the actors, everything was top notch, and yet it received little to no coverage in TV Guide. It is often said that networks don't want to take risks on "different" types of shows, instead they stick to the old formulas, but when networks do bring a new and original show and it is ignored by the press, I just have to wonder why. Did Platinum not receive attention because it was on UPN? That doesn't hold water, because The O.C. is on Fox. Is it because of race, because it is more accepted to see rich white people than rich black people? I was just very disappointed in the lack of coverage for Platinum, but the heaping of coverage on a soap like The O.C., it just bothers me. Thanks for letting me vent. — Catrina Matt: Fair enough, and just like with 90210 (the spiritual predecessor to The O.C.), I wish O.C. had more diversity in its cast. (Otherwise, I'm just loving it.) But did UPN really give anyone in the media any reason to trumpet Platinum as the next big thing or even to believe the network had gotten behind it? (I gave the show a positive review last spring, likening it to a hip-hop Dynasty, but it was canceled little more than a month later.) Likening UPN to Fox is a little disingenuous as well. Fox has produced media megahits (The Simpsons, American Idol, The X-Files, etc.), and UPN, to be generous, has not. If UPN had given Platinum a fair shot and it had developed a following, I'm betting the media would have welcomed the chance to celebrate a network drama focusing on mostly black characters. It would have been news. Instead, it was just another UPN casualty, though more promising than most, which we even said at the time. As for the media attention (not just in TV Guide) for The O.C., part of that had to do with Fox's canny summer scheduling, introducing it as one of the few network alternatives to reality, helped by the fact that it was a throwback to Fox's early years and made a good programming story. Plus, the show is a blast. Though it's possible that more media attention might have helped Platinum during its very brief existence, UPN deserves the blame for this one. Question: I have written in several times about shows on UPN, and hopefully this one you will notice. I am just wondering why the great shows on UPN are constantly given the shaft. Platinum was as good as The Sopranos, and one episode of Girlfriends is better than five episodes of Sex and the City, yet neither of these shows is ever given any coverage — to the doom of the former. Shows on WB and Fox are given mammoth amounts of coverage compared to UPN — most of these shows, may I point out, are about the rich, white crowd. Is it that critics are just less inclined to watch UPN because of the "stigma" it has been given by the media — that all of the shows are for poor black people, no one watches them and they are of low quality, so most critics and publications feel they shouldn't even bother? Strangely, the only shows that get press from UPN are Jake 2.0 (which is good, don't get me wrong) and the retired Buffy the Vampire Slayer — both shows with mostly white people. In a time when we are getting bombarded by praise for The O.C., a soap about rich white kids, I am just having a real hard time with the fact that a gem like Platinum was so severely overlooked, and Girlfriends continues to be overlooked. — Piper Matt: It's a tough question, and there's no satisfying answer. I dealt with Platinum vis-a-vis The O.C. in the earlier entry, and I agree that Girlfriends is easily UPN's best sitcom, though I would argue this show has been able to break out of UPN's so-called "ghetto" in the eyes of many critics and publications, who really are desperate to shine some light on good shows that stray from TV's usual lily-white mode. But better than Sex and the City? And Platinum as good as The Sopranos? I think you're stretching the point. But it's an important point to make. And it's not confined just to UPN coverage. I'm sure ABC wishes the media were more interested in the breakthrough successes of its minority-based family comedies starring Damon Wayans and George Lopez — neither of their shows nearly as enjoyable as Girlfriends, by the way. ____________________ Be on the look-out on Fox for the new commercial touting The OC's "New Years Resolutions" with some fav scenes and some spoilers (Jimmy and Hailey kissing on the stoop, K-I-S-S-I-N-G). ____________________ Hope everyone had happy and exciting holidays, even without our OC gang. Happy Festivus!

posted by Jen @ 9:49 AM |

ARCHIVED NEWS

PART OF THE OC CENTRAL @ THE-OC.ORG (2003-2005)
Powered by: Blogger