Stars: David Krumholtz, Michael Urie, Sophia Bush, Brandon Routh
Premise: Somewhat of a roman-à-clef of Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, Partners is a comedic take on two friends and business partners, one gay and one straight, and their significant others.
Stars: Jordana Spiro, James Carpinello, William Forsythe, Zach Gilford, Željko Ivanek, Jesse Lee Soffer
Premise: To save her brother from gangsters due to unpaid gambling debts, surgical resident Grace Devlin agrees to perform on-demand medical services for the mob.
Stars: Tracy Spiridakos, Billy Burke, Elizabeth Mitchell, JD Pardo, Giancarlo Esposito, Daniella Alonso, Tim Guinee, Marla Howell, David Lyons, Zak Orth, Graham Rogers
Premise: After a mysterious planetwide blackout shuts off all the power, the series picks up 15 years later as the United States – now known as the Monroe Republic – is a land of relatively primative farm communities. Beneath the seemingly peaceful surface is a place where guns are outlawed and ownership is punishable by death. Law is enforced by a roving militia headed by Captain Tom Neville who is opposed by a band of resistance fighters. However, the militia secretly holds the answers to turning all the electricity back on.
Stars: Michael Chiklis, Dennis Quaid, Jason O'Mara, Sarah Jones, Carrie-Anne Moss
Premise: 60's-era drama tells the story of the mob and its ever-growing influence in Sin City. Business and personal interactions between mobsters and the law fuel the drama in this period piece.
Premise: The ever-durable Odd Couple template gets another go-round in this sitcom as free spirit brother (Faxon) moves in with his uptight sister (Johnson, daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson) and her young daughter in order to "help" them. Frequent flashbacks will be woven into the narrative to explain how the siblings turned out the way they did.
Stars: Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz, Anna Camp, Zoe Jarman, Chris Messina, Amanda Setton, Stephen Tobolowsky, Ed Weeks
Premise: Sitcom stars Kaling, who played Kelly Kapoor on The Office, as a New York City OB-GYN who tries – and often fails – to balance her career and her dating life. Kaling created this series with Howard Klien and also serves as its head writer and co-producer.
Stars: Matthew Perry, Laura Benanti, John Cho, Brett Gelman, Suzy Nakamura, Julie White, Tyler James Williams
Premise: Perry plays a sports radio host who joins a support group after the death of his wife in a car accident while she was texting him. Despite the nature of the promos that have been run, this comedic series will mix in large doses of sadness and heart.
Stars: Andrew Rannells, Justin Bartha, Georgia King, Bebe Wood, Ellen Barkin, Nene Leaks
Premise: Co-created by Ali Adler and Ryan Murphy (Glee), this new sitcom explores the comedic situations arising from a gay couple (Rannells, Bartha) who hire a woman to be their gestational carrier for their baby to the consternation of Barkin's bigoted grandmother, Jane.
Stars: Mamie Gummer, Justin Hartley, Aja Naomi King, Kelly McCreary, Michael Rady, Necar Zadegan
Premise: Dramedy following surgical intern Emily Owens (Gummer, Meryl Streep's daughter) as she attempts to balance her hectic personal and professional lives.
Stars: Hayden Panettiere, Connie Britton, Powers Boothe, Clare Bowen, Eric Close, Charles Esten, Jonathan Jackson, Sam Palladio, Robert Wisdom
Premise: Filmed entirely in Nashville, this new soap opera drama stars Panettiere as Juliette Barnes, an up-and-coming country-music star who tries to navigate through the drama of both the music business and her personal life. The expansive cast will also allow stories about Nashville itself – its people, politics, and power.
Stars: Lenny Venito, Jami Gertz, Toks Olagundoye, Simon Templeman
Premise: After the Weavers (Venito, Gertz) move with their children to a suburban gated community, they discover that all of their neighbors are extraterrestrial aliens. Culture clash comedy ensues as the aliens are not as up-to-date on American culture as they should be. For instance, they think kids' meals are made from actual kids.
Premise: Sitcom showcasing the hijinks of veterinarian Dr. George Coleman (Kirk) and the various pets and animals – both ordinary and exotic – that come through the door.
Stars: Taylor Kinney, Charlie Barnett, David Eigenberg, Lauren German, Monica Raymund, Teri Reeves, Jesse Spencer, Eamonn Walker
Premise: New ensemble drama from Dick Wolf, creator of the Law & Order franchise, follows the lives and careers of the firefighters of Chicago's Firehouse 51 squad.
Stars: Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, Paul Blackthorne, Colin Donnell, Willa Holland, David Ramsey, Susana Thompson
Premise: Adapted from the long-running DC Comics character Green Arrow, Amell plays billionaire Oliver Queen who returns to his native Starling City after having been shipwrecked on an island for five life-changing years. Cassidy (David Cassidy's daughter) plays Dinah Laurel Lance, who comic book fans will know as the superheroine Black Canary. At this time, however, Cassidy is not set to join in on the action. The tone of this series will be a bit darker than standard superhero fare, and Oliver will simply call himself Arrow as he stalks the night and the criminal underbelly of the city because that's CW-cool. Oliver's time on the island will unfold gradually in flashbacks week-to-week as new secrets and connections between that time and the denizens of Starling City are revealed.
Stars: Scott Speedman, Andre Braugher, Daisy Betts, Dichen Lachman, Daniel Lissing, Sahr Ngaujah, Robert Patrick, Camille de Pazzis, Autumn Reeser, Jessy Schram
Premise: The crew of the nuclear-armed Navy submarine USS Colorado seeks refuge on a Pacific Island after being attacked by the US government itself. A growing conspiracy begins to reveal itself and the crew attempts to make sense of things while fighting conflicts from without and dissension from within. But that nucler arsenal they carry on their sub makes for an excellent equalizer and gives them the breathing room they need as they try to piece things together in this new action thriller.
Premise: Current-day take on the Sherlock Holmes character with Liu as a female Dr. Watson. When we first encounter Holmes, here a British ex-pat living in New York, he's bottomed out from his drug abuse and has escaped the rehab center. Holmes will still be the smartest guy in the room, and won't be afraid to show it, but we'll see his awkwardness in social situations and his core of self-doubt. Despite Watson being a female in this take, there will be no romance between the two leads.
Stars: Kristin Kreuk, Jay Ryan, Austin Basis, Nina Lisandrello
Premise: Reboot of the 1987-1990 CBS series finds Kreuk taking on Linda Hamilton's role of Catherine Chandler while New Zealand actor Jay Ryan (of the Australian TV series Neighbors and Sea Patrol) re-creates Ron Perlman's role of Vincent. Since this is the CW where aesthetics are important, Ryan sports merely a scar and his beastly nature is more internal with only occassional transformations into something different. Other changes include Catherine being a police detective rather than an Assistant District Attorney, and Vincent's condition being the result of army experiments while stationed in Afghanistan after 9-11.
Stars: Reba McEntire, Lily Tomlin, Juliette Angelo, Justin Prentice, Jai Rodriguez, Sara Rue
Premise: The Gallagher family tries to adjust to life in Malibu as divorced mom Reba attempts to get back into the music business after having given it up for marriage and family. After receiving cheating husband's beachfront property in the divorce settlement, Reba, her kids, and her mother uproot themselves from Nashville and head off to sunny California in this fish-out-of-water comedy.
Premise: Street smart Italian Ameircan Martina Garretti is an attorney trying to fit in with a posh Manhattan law firm and win the respect of her more polished co-workers and bosses. Her people skills and quirky bits of knowledge often enable her to find the truth that her colleagues overlook.
Stars: David Annable, Rachael Taylor, Vanesa Williams, Terry O'Quinn, Robert Buckley, Samantha Logan, Mercedes Masöhn, Helena Mattsson, Erik Palladino
Premise: Loosely based on the novel by Gabriella Pierce, O'Quinn and Williams play Gavin and Olivia Doran, a couple who may be hiding a sinister – and supernatural – secret as owners of The Drake, the apartment building located at the titular address. Annable and Taylor play a couple hired to manage the building where the wife begins to uncover the Drake's darker and ominous side. The mythology of the building and of its owners reveal themselves over the course of the episodes as some uncooperative tenants meet a grisly end.
2013 OSCAR NOMINATIONS & WINNERS
Written by USTownhall staff
Thursday, 10 January 2013 19:39
Ealier today, the nominations were annouced for the 85th Academy Awards ceremony, which will be held on Sunday, February 24, 2013. Steven Spielberg'sLincoln led the pack with 12 nominations, followed by Ang Lee'sLife of Pi with 11. The major surprise of the nominations was that three odds-on favorites for Best Director were not even nominated: Ben Affleck for Argo, Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thrity, and Tom Hooper for Les Misérables.
The nominations were announced at 8:30am Eastern time at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills by television and film producer Seth McFarlane (The Family Guy, Ted) and actress Emma Stone, who recently played Gwen Stacy in last summer's The Amazing Spider-Man. McFarlane will also serve as host of the Oscars themselves.
List of nominees and winners - major categories:
Best Picture
• Amour • Argo • Beasts of the Southern Wild • Django Unchained • Life of Pi • Lincoln • Les Misérables • Silver Linings Playbook • Zero Dark Thirty
Best Director
• Michael Haneke – Amour • Ang Lee – Life of Pi • David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook • Steven Spielberg – Lincoln • Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Best Writing - Original
• Amour – Michael Haneke • Django Unchained – Quentin Tarantino • Flight – John Gatins Moonrise Kingdom – • Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola • Zero Dark Thirty – Mark Boal
Best Writing - Adaptation
• Argo – Chris Terrio • Beasts of the Southern Wild – Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin • Life of Pi – David Magee • Lincoln – Tony Kushner • Silver Linings Playbook – David O. Russell
Best Animated Feature
• Brave – Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman • Frankenweenie – Tim Burton • ParaNorman – Sam Fell and Chris Butler • The Pirates! Band of Misfits – Peter Lord • Wreck-It Ralph – Rich Moore
Best Actor
• Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook • Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln • Hugh Jackman – Les Misérables • Joaquin Phoenix – The Master • Denzel Washington – Flight
Best Actress
• Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty • Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook • Emmanuelle Riva – Amour • Quvenzhané Wallis – Beasts of the Southern Wild • Naomi Watts – The Impossible
Best Supporting Actor
• Alan Arkin – Argo • Robert De Niro – Silver Linings Playbook • Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master • Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln • Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained
Best Supporting Actress
• Amy Adams – The Master • Sally Field – Lincoln • Anne Hathaway – Les Misérables • Helen Hunt – The Sessions • Jacki Weaver – Silver Linings Playbook
USTownhall RealStories presents MATT RYAN, star of CONSTANTINE
Written by Scott Katz
On Friday, October 31, we spoke with Matt Ryan, who plays the titular character in the new NBC series Constantine, based on the popular occult DC Comics character.
USTH: Matt, can you just take us a little bit through the casting process? How did you come to learn about this part and how extensive was the audition process for you before you got it?
Matt Ryan: Oh wow, it was quite a ride to be honest with you. I was doing Henry V in London in the West End with Jude Law and the Michael Grandage Company. It was pilot season obviously, so there were a lot of auditions coming up.
So, Kate Dowd was casting [the series] in the UK, so I went in for an audition, did a tape, we sat at the table. I actually had really long hair and a big, bushy beard. And I can remember my agent calling me and saying, "Look, they really, really like you, but they can’t really see past the beard," you know?
And I was like, "Well, you know, I’m in the middle of a play. There’s not really much I can do about that."
What was my favorite - I’d been on a movie called Sunday Paper about four or five years ago or something, and I actually bleached blonde my hair for that so it was kind of a similar look.
I think I’d done about four or five tapes or something, you know, with different notes. And I already had a conversation with Daniel (Cerone) and David (Goyer) [developers of the series] as well, via Skype, to give me notes and stuff.
So, kept on doing all of these tapes, but still, I had this big beard. And then, I was going to try and get a night off the play to fly over to test. But unfortunately, due to some circumstances with a member of cast in the play, I wasn’t able to take a night off.
So, I had to let that test go really, in a way. And I think they used my tapes or something. But I think they couldn’t see past my beard. I think they went back to the drawing board and started looking again.
And then they came back about a week or so later and said, "Look, we still really like you and we want you to retape." So retaped again. I ended up doing about six audition tapes or something.
And I think one of the notes which was really funny was my agent said that David Goyer had mentioned that we really liked Sasquatch. And eventually the play ended.
I ended on a Saturday night when I would have the wrap party, so to speak, of the play and jumped on a plane first thing in the morning, flew over. I think it was a holiday in America on that day so all of the hair salons were shut.
So I had to have a friend of mine come over and cut my hair. And then the next day, I went in and tested, and then went to the studio testing process, and then the network testing process.
And then eventually got there, man. It was quite a ride to be honest with you. You know, it was quite a long process – it’s definitely the longest audition process I’d been through. And it was such a thrill then when I actually got the job, you know?
USTH: Given that you’re the star of this show and this is a big American TV production, are you feeling any sort of pressure? How are you acclimating yourself to being the focus of this new series and all of the attention on you? How are you handling all of that?
Matt Ryan: It’s a new experience, you know? It’s something that I’ve never encountered before. So, there’s been different turning points in Constantine that I’ve never come across.
And I feel like you just throw yourself into whatever work you’re doing and you concentrate on that.
And we work so many hours as well that there’s not the time to stop and think, "Oh my God, what is this I’m doing?" which is kind of a good thing because you have to be in the moment and just go with it and keep your work going, which is what I love doing. You know?
[That's] kind of [my] perspective on it, then. And I think that if we had a three month break right now I’d probably go, "What the hell just happened," do you know what I mean? But, at the moment I’m still kind of right in the mix of it.
Kind of working every day. And that’s kind of where I like to be as well. You know, with my head in the work and concentrating on that, you know? I think it’s been a hell of a ride and it’s been really, really good fun as well.
And, I’ve really enjoyed it man. And I’m just taking it all in my stride and trying to enjoy it.
USTH: I know Constantine is on a different network than some of the other DC comic book shows like The Flash or Arrow, but has there been any discussion that you know of regarding the possibility of characters from each of those shows crossing into your show or you crossing over into their shows?
Matt Ryan: Not that I’ve heard of. I mean, I don’t know what goes on in the DC office or what all those guys talk about. But, so far I don’t have any information on whether that’s going to happen or not.
Our thanks to Matt Ryan for speaking with us today. Contstantine airs Friday nights on NBC.
USTownhall RealStories presents Nick Purpura of Jim Hanley's Universe
Written by Scott Katz
Sunday, 07 August 2011 22:37
Recent news from the comics industry – particularly DC Comics' May 31 announcement that it will be relaunching its entire line of superhero titles in September with new number one issues – has rocked comics fandom and has made headlines across the country in various entertainment-related websites and publications including USTownhall.com.
We wanted to go beyond the marketing hype and get a retailer's perspective on all of this in order to gauge just how effective, or risky, this bold move may be and what it, and other annoucements made recently – such as offering comics in digital format simultaneously with their print versions – mean for comics fans and for the comics industry as a whole.
Toward that end, we sat down for an extended interview with Nick Purpura, the General Manager of Jim Hanley's Universe. Since Jim Hanley's Universe first opened its doors in 1985, it has become one of New York City's – and the country's – most preeminent retailers of comic books, graphic novels, and related merchandise. Mr. Purpura himself has been an enthusiastic advocate and cheerleader of the comic book artform during his long career at Jim Hanley's so his observations and insights are of particular interest both to comics fans and to the companies who put a lot of time and money into their publishing initiatives.
This interview was filmed in Jim Hanley's Universe's Manhattan location on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 and will be posted here in four parts. Enjoy part one now, and keep checking back during the week as we upload the remaining segments.
If you are in New York City, be sure to visit Jim Hanley's Universe at either of their two locations: 4 West 33rd Street (opposite the Empire State Building) in Manhattan, and 299B New Dorp Lane in Staten Island. Go to http://www.jhuniverse.com for more details.
• Do comic book movies still bring people into stores?
• Do DC and Marvel do a good enough job in bringing in new readers?
• Updating old properties for today's audience
• Comic fans getting upset by revamps
• Internet spoilers' effect on fan reaction and sales
• No more guaranteed trade paperback collections from DC
• Done-in-ones vs. writing for the trade
• Trade paperbacks that need to be available in print
• Secret Wars as a gateway comic for lapsed readers
• DC's new 52 titles: a recommendation from Nick
USTownhall RoundTable: The Spring 2018 sessions
Written by Scott Katz
Join Scott, Brenda, and Kerry once again as we praise and critique the best and worst of the current seasons of American Idol and Dancing with the Stars!
AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 16 PODCAST
DANCING WITH THE STARS SEASON 26 PODCAST
(1) April 27, 2018: Top 14 becomes Top 10
(2) May 4, 2018: Top 10 becomes Top 7
(1) May 4, 2018: First Dances, Jamie Anderson & Johnny Damon eliminated
USTH: Given that you’re the star of this show and this is a big American TV production, are you feeling any sort of pressure? How are you acclimating yourself to being the focus of this new series and all of the attention on you? How are you handling all of that?
Toward that end, we sat down for an extended interview with Nick Purpura, the General Manager of Jim Hanley's Universe. Since Jim Hanley's Universe first opened its doors in 1985, it has become one of New York City's – and the country's – most preeminent retailers of comic books, graphic novels, and related merchandise. Mr. Purpura himself has been an enthusiastic advocate and cheerleader of the comic book artform during his long career at Jim Hanley's so his observations and insights are of particular interest both to comics fans and to the companies who put a lot of time and money into their publishing initiatives.
