Trade Round-Up: Mr. Mephistopheles Appointed To TV Judgeship

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mark

10/12/06 02:56PM

Filed to: Defamer

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In easily the strangest TV news of the day, NBC signs up Jon Lovitz to star in the unscripted comedy Bad
Judge, in which he will play a "heightened" version of himself (read: encouraged to constantly lapse into his old SNL characters) who hands out unfair—but hilarious!—decisions in real legal cases. [Variety]
NBC's premiere of its new block of Must See Shows With Numbers in Their Titles TV fails to excite audiences, as 30 Rock and 20 Good Years finish third in their respective timeslots. It's starting to look like viewers won't support even a single behind-the-scenes-of-a-sketch-comedy-show series, much less one each from the sitcom and drama genres. [THR]
Noted North Korean cin aste Kim Jong Il's testing of his new nuclear toys isn't stopping stop film executives and journalists from attending the Pusan Film Fest in South Korea, Asia's most important film event. [Variety]
· In other TV-shows-with-numbers-in-the-title news, CBS will give recently cancelled Smith's Tuesday night timeslot to 3 Lbs., its hunky-neurosurgeon drama starring noted boob-tube albatross Mark Feuerstein. His involvement requires us to predict that it will be off the air after no more than five episodes. [THR]
Fox TV Studios nabs the rights to make The Devil Wears Prada for TV, which they'll develop for their broadcast mothership as a single-camera comedy they envision as "like Ugly Betty, but much better looking." [Variety]

The following replies are approved. To see additional replies that are pending approval, click Show Pending. Warning: These may contain graphic material.

jordo_83 mark 10/12/06 03:20PM

Let me explain:

The two fellas are at a racquetball court that is shown to have all four walls. There is mysterious laughter coming at the exact moments of the "jokes." Since there are four walls that can be seen of this court, then the audience must be on some form of risers above the actors watching the very enjoyable hilarity ensue below them.

And just to clarify, I don't work for 20 Years, but I wish I did cause this show is going to run for 20 Years, its just that funny. And with a laugh track even when the jokes are too subtle for me to get (re: Jeffrey Tambor gets hit in the testicles with a racquetball) I can still laugh along cause I know it is supposed to be funny. God bless laugh tracks!

nojo mark 10/12/06 02:30PM

I'm so confused: I wanted to like Studio 60, but I don't. I wanted to hate 30 Rock, but it wasn't bad.

On the other hand, 20 Good Years? Please tell me that was a parody of a sitcom (with single-camera laugh track!), and not a real one. I need to know that Arrested didn't die in vain.

bunnyblues mark 10/16/06 04:45PM

You're really expecting a lot from a Boomer audience if you think they know how to watch a sit-com without a laugh track.

For the record, Tambor's Meathead.

And Mark Feuerstein's not just a boob-tube albatross, or have you forgotten Lazy Monday?

jordo_83 mark 10/12/06 02:59PM

There was no laugh track on 20 Good Years. They just had the enitre audience go on location to the racquetball courts, hover somewhere above the actors and then performed the show. Certainly a show wouldn't just plug in laughs so that an audience at home knows what they should be laughing at. That would just be plain Reid-tarded (love that).