Television Critics Association Awards Last Night

Last night was a big one
for Parks and Recreation's
Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson).

The Television Critics Association Awards were handed out last night at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles.  Mad Men and Modern Family came out on top in the drama and comedy categories.  The outstanding performers in those areas were Jon Hamm for Mad Men and Ty Burrell (Phil Dumphy) of Modern Family who tied with Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson) of Parks and Recreation, host of the awards program.

Oprah Winfrey was honored with the Career Achievement Award following her final and 25th season of her talk show.   

And, 45 years after it went off the air, one of my all time favorites and still one of the best sitcoms of all time, the Dick Van Dyke Show, was presented with a Heritage Award.  How cool is this?  Carl Reiner, the show's producer and creator, accepted the award and Rose Marie (Sally) attended.  "We were a hell of a team," she said.

Here’s the full list of winners:

Individual Achievement in Drama: Jon Hamm, Mad Men (AMC)
Individual Achievement in Comedy: Ty Burrell, Modern Family (ABC) and Nick Offerman, Parks and Recreation (NBC)
Outstanding Achievement in News and Information: Restrepo (NatGeo)
Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming: Amazing Race (CBS)
Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming: Sesame Street (PBS)
Outstanding New Program: Game of Thrones (HBO)
Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials: Masterpiece: Sherlock (PBS)
Outstanding Achievement in Drama: Mad Men (AMC)
Outstanding Achievement in Comedy: Modern Family (ABC)
Career Achievement Award: Oprah Winfrey
Heritage Award: The Dick Van Dyke Show
Program of the Year: Friday Night Lights (DirecTV/NBC)

The Closer Meets Abbott and Costello with Hilarious Results

The latest episode of The Closer, "To Serve with Love," demonstrates it's a damn shame that this winning series ends after its current run on TNT.

Centering on the off-duty hijinks of Lieutenants Flynn (Tony Denison) and Provenza (the incredibly funny G.W. Bailey from M*A*S*H), intertwined with the on-duty trouble they cause Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick), the installment is a stand-out among stand-outs.

The wonderful Adam Arkin  guests stars as a Bernie Madoff type who's in trouble for pilfering pension funds.  The two detectives take a supposedly benign moonlighting job to serve him a subpoena, which naturally spins into a murder and crossed swords with the FBI.

The two involve the team's young and naive techie, Buzz, and put the Los Angeles Police Department's reputation in peril as they lose a suspect, wreck a car, run afoul of the Chief's FBI liaison/husband (Jon Tenney) and deliver false information to the media, all to earn a paltry $3,000.

The plot and dialogue shine as the two get deeper and deeper into trouble.  The laughs escalate with the "tip off" that the dead body is not the Jewish man he's thought to be, an appearance by the bickering twenty-something wife and daughter of the supposed victim  - who went to grade school together - and as Chief Johnson throws Commander Taylor, the constant thorn in her side, unwittingly into a media maelstrom.

Like an Abbott and Costello meets Keystone Cops short, there's hilarity that ends with a win-win for everyone, except Taylor, and Arkin's comic, yet hateful character. 

If this program is not on your DVR, you can find it at www.tnt.tv (Episode 3, Season 7).  The Closer has only a few episodes left because Kyra Sedgwick has had enough, even though it's drawing nine million viewers per week.  There are seven more programs scheduled for this summer and a few more for early 2012.  Some characters will be spun off into a new series, Major Crimes, with Mary McDonnell, a semi-regular who plays Captain Raydor. 

I can't imagine the show will be as good without Sedgwick's Chief Johnson and the interplay between Brenda and Fritz, but if G.W. Bailey is around with Denison as his straight man, great moments are guaranteed.

MSNBC Brings Mark Halperin Back after Suspension

MSNBC chief Phil Griffin has reinstated political analyst Mark Halperin who was back on Morning Joe this morning after his "indefinite" suspension.  I'm glad it only lasted a month.  As I stated when Halperin was removed from the network after making an irreverent remark about President Obama, he didn't deserve to have his career ruined, though the suspension was completely justified.  I'm sure he'll never say anything off-color anywhere near a microphone again.  Good news for Halperin and good news for MSNBC.  Halperin, editor-at-large for Time, an author ("Game Change) and commentator, is a solid, though formerly misguided, journalist. 

Bachelorette Ashley Chooses JP and Few Other Surprises

If you're a reader of Reality Steve, you already knew Bachelorette Ashley Hebert chose JP Rosenbaum of Roslyn last night as her bachelor.

Ashley and JP: Will a lot of kissing
lead to a longterm relationship?

If you didn't, I'm so sorry you had to sit through almost two hours of recaps, anticipatory interviews and, finally, the humiliation of poor Ben before the three to five minute reunion leading up to the "engagement" at the end of the episode.  The news is that Ashley will complete dental school in Philadelphia in a month and will then move to New York City where she and JP will "get a place together."

It certainly seems like Ashley and JP are into one another.  I've never seen so much kissing.  So, let's hope there's a chance for them.

However, this process (um, journey) has to be tweaked - for the contestants and for the audience.

Again, producers used misleading teasers to throw viewers off the track.  Ashley's sister was put up to lobbying against JP.  (This morning, I heard a radio host opine that she was auditioning for her own reality show.) There's footage of Ashley frowning right up against video of JP to make it look like she's down on him.  Poor Ben has an engagement ring and goes so far as to get down on one knee to propose to a woman who knew weeks before the taping of the finale that she was going with the other guy.  At least he walked away like a man, without histrionics.

Are these contestants so wrapped up in their contract - or cowardly - that they give the runner-up no indication they'll be rejected until the last second?  Or is the runner-up acting?  Either way, there has to be a better way to close this program out.  You fly a guy to Fiji so he can get psyched for a lifetime commitment, dress him up in his best Sunday duds and spit him out?  The men I know would be furious at having to put on a suit for no good reason.

In the After the Final Rose episode, host Chris Harrison alluded to an appearance by the wicked Bentley, but he was a no-show, as anyone who reads the blogs knew.  The most interesting part of the after party was the interview with Ben who said, basically, "JP's a good guy, I'm not angry anymore, I wish the two of them the best.  I'm getting on with my life."

And let's not forget the endless promos for ABC's upcoming Bachelor Pad.

I've said all along that this show is guilty pleasure and I enjoy it, but it could be so much better if they threw away the tired reality show formatting.  Mix it up a little bit.  Intertwine a some behind-the-scenes action.  Let us know more about the contestants and the process and delete the endless chatter with the same buzz words - journey, my heart, in it for the right reasons, I think I'm falling for..., which reminds me of the worst one of them all, dot, dot, dot.

With the Bachelor/Bachelorette's poor track record - three couples still standing since the 2002 debut of the franchise - producers ought to consider additional changes to keep the couples together - if they care about that.  Word is that after Ashley and JP's final rose ceremony, they were allowed to see each other, whereas in previous seasons that was not the case.  At least there was one adjustment.  Reality Steve has said couples should be recruited from the same part of the country to avoid the failure of so many long distance relationships.  That's a good one.  C'mon ABC, let's try something new.

Set Your DVR: Bachelorette Programming This Weekend

A preview of Monday night's Bachelorette.

Don't forget to watch or record The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All Sunday night at 9 p.m. on ABC, if you're so inclined.  

Monday night at 8p.m. is the grand finale of the program during which UPenn dental student Ashley Hebert is expected to choose and become engaged to either winemaker Ben Flajnik from Napa or construction manager JP Rosenbaum from Roslyn, Long Island.  

Watch for lots of lame interviews and footage leading up to the only two or three minutes at the end of the program that mean anything.  Although, the producers have teased some drama that plays out between Ashley and her sister (who appears to have a full body tattoo).  I follow this show for some reason, but I admit it's similar to a professional basketball game.  Only the last few seconds count.

Immediately after The Bachelorette comes After the Final Rose featuring Ashley's view of the season and the big debut of the new couple, their first public outing together. 

During the course of Sunday and Monday ABC will air five hours of Bachelorette program.   OMG.

News & Notes: CHAOS Off the Air, Kudos for Shows, What's Wrong with Morning Joe?

A CBS spokesperson confirmed to me today that CHAOS, the CIA comedy-drama, has not been renewed for a second season.  That's a disappointment since the show was both interesting and funny.  In my opinion, the network did not give it a fair chance.  They placed it on Saturday nights at 8 p.m. when virtually no one is watching TV, particularly during the summer.

ABC's Rookie Blue has turned out to be a pretty good show.  Despite my initial review, I now find that there is good character development and semi-believable plot lines - for a cop drama.  Though it doesn't compare to some of the greats, the writing is solid and the stories involve interesting issues.  I will say that it strains credibility that so many of the cops in the precinct are involved with each other personally.

More kudos for Necessary Roughness on USA.  What a great show and a breath of fresh air.  No dead bodies.  Great writing.  And multi-dimensional characters in the very entertaining sports arena - not a single lawyer or cop among them.

The recent change of executive producers at Morning Joe on MSNBC seems to have led to a new dynamic on the set, and not a good one.  While host Joe Scarborough  has always been the dominant talker, there has been even less air time for co-hosts Mika Brzezinsky and Willie Geist.  Mike Barnicle seems also to have been relegated to a lesser role.  During today's extremely loud and boisterous debate (really a shouting match) about the budget battle in Washington, Lawrence O'Donnell, Grover Norquist and Scarborough dominated. Brzezinksy was silent and Geist was nowhere to be found.  Later, Scarborough asked Brzezinsky if something was wrong.  She started to give an answer, but decided against it.  What's up here? Is Joe taking a larger role with the consent of new EP Alex Korson?  I tried to get an answer from Korson today, but he didn't respond to my e-mail or phone call.  Thoughts?

The Entourage Swan Song: If the Series is Failing, How Can the Movie Succeed?

Entourage returned to HBO last night after more than a year off for its final season of eight episodes, but the wait was hardly worth it.

Nothing happened in the first episode which detracts from any anticipation there might have been for the next seven entries, and particularly for the full length feature film now promised.

As the season begins, Vincent Chase, movie star, is leaving rehab where he spent the last three months weaning himself from cocaine.

His boys are tripping over themselves - and each other - preparing for his return.   

Eric and the newest boy blunder, Scott Lavin (Scott Caan), need to impress him for his business, though Eric is pumping the friendship angle.  Johnny Drama (the only character who seems to be growing) is clearing the house of alcohol and drugs.  Turtle claims to be helping, but he’s still too immature to go a few hours without smoking a joint.  Uber agent Ari Gold is consumed with his family problems – his wife threw him out – but is still so attached to his career that he, too, has to join the Vincent Chase welcoming party.

What follows throughout the episode is a repeat of hijinks from the past seven seasons.   

The guys throw what is supposed to be a dry party for Vince that, of course, gets so out of control that the fire department arrives with lights and sirens.

Weaved into the action is Vince's desperation to produce a new film whose topic doesn't excite anyone, but they're too sycophantic to tell him.

Also, Ari tries to woo his ex and Eric has moments with Sloan.  Their engagement is kaput over a disagreement about a prenup.

[Sigh]

I’m almost ready to stop watching Entourage, but I’ve hung in this long and would like to see the series through to its conclusion, which should arrive with some maturation among these young men.  Though maybe we’ll have to wait for the movie. 

Memo to Mark Wahlberg and the other producers: everyone has to grow up sometime.  And mature people can be interesting, too.  If you do make the movie, let’s see these guys evolve and behave less like frat boys.