Monday, January 11, 2010

NEWS: ATWT Replacement, Prinz, Towers, Brooks

CBS mulling talk and game shows to replace ATWT
Speaking to reporters Saturday at CBS' portion of the TV Critics Assn. press tour, CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler said the network was still mulling different talk or game show options to replace the retiring AS THE WORLD TURNS.

Rosemary Prinz on bias between soap and theater industries
"The management, the sponsors, CBS people, all the bigwigs that controlled things would insist that I was Penny all of this time. And I would say, 'No, I'm Rosemary, and I'm going to do these plays.' And so I would go off and do it.

"Then there was a terrible prejudice on the other side. The theater people — even though I had been a theater actress for nine years before I did AS THE WORLD TURNS [playing Penny] — were very snooty about television. And now they can't wait to hire television people. I had to really work it. I really had to fight to get an audition."

Constance Towers Returns to GENERAL HOSPITAL
Constance Towers is returning to GH as Helena Cassadine. "Just when things couldn¹t get more complicated [between Nikolas, Lucky and Elizabeth], Helena comes to town to stir the pot," reveals Head Writer Robert Guza, Jr.

Web Series Shows a Bit of Quality Can Help Sell 'Crap'
To many brands (not to mention Hollywood actors), the web is still considered a dumping ground for content not considered good enough for traditional TV. And in the early stages of what is now EASY TO ASSEMBLE, a web series sponsored by Ikea and created by actress Illeana Douglas, that dictum was true. But after the series became the most-watched sponsored web show in its second season, garnering 5.1 million views and counting, Ms. Douglas and her all-star cast are rewriting the rulebook on how to create quality content for the web with a TV-like viewership.

HUFFINGTON POST: What's Wrong With Gay Sex?
Leslyann Coker writes: "ABC squandered a golden opportunity to take a stand on an important civil rights issue. They should have proudly advertised their plan to showcase a tender love scene between two consenting adults in a monogamous relationship, and not try to slip it under the radar on one of the lowest viewership days of the year. If they feared certain groups would call for a boycott, ratings could have benefited."

The Multidimensional Career Of Lois Smith
Lois Smith has avoided being pigeonholed as one type of actress. The 79-year-old Smith has been a regular on television, from the early days of live television to recent episodes of HBO's TRUE BLOOD. Her soap credits include SOMERSET, ANOTHER WORLD, THE EDGE OF NIGHT, ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE.

INTERVIEW: Former DAYS star Darin Brooks (ex-Max)
"I left DAYS in May, immediately went to Canada for three months to shoot the entire season of BLUE MOUNTAIN STATE, then came back to L.A. at the end of August just in time to go find myself a suit and get to the Emmy ceremony. It was nuts! Winning the award came as such a shock, which is why I swore on national television. [Laughs] Also, it’s hard to stop now that I get paid to swear."

2 comments:

  1. I saw Rosemary Prinz off Broadway, playing the lead in STEEL MAGNOLIAS. Certainly a different take than Sally Field's film version! That was back when every actress in showbiz was coming to see the play and vying for the chance to do the movie. I remember Lucille Ball and Arlene Dahl sitting in the row behind me! Maybe they wanted to play "Weezer."

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  2. Instead of a talk show, why not import a soap from the UK, Australia, or New Zealand?

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