Today I participated in a call with Battlestar Galactica’s iconic Six (Tricia Helfer) to talk about her role in the July 10 premiere of USA’s new hit show Burn Notice. Of course Galactica came up as well and we got some great tidbits from her. The transcript from the call will be coming later this week. To wet your appetite. Here are some little tidbits.

• Tricia will be in 7 Episodes of Burn Notice playing a mysterious spy. She’ll be in the first two episodes of the season, the season finale and a couple in 2009.
• Her character is the public face of the organization that burned Michael.
• She really liked the being on the set and said it was a real welcoming environment.
• She talks a bit about the difference between Vancouver and Miami, Fl. Said she had to get use to it being sunny in Fla.
• She has a list of DVD Sets that she wants to watch since she doesn’t watch much television. She likes quirky shows like Madmen and Weeds. Is currently watching Dexter, 24, and Arrested Development.
• When asked if she uses the word Frak in her every day life she no. Primarily because her character on Galactica rarely says it. But Frak has become part of other cast and crew’s vocabulary.
• She didn’t have to audition for the Burn Notice part. Matt called her up and said he had a part for her.
• She’s shooting a pilot for a new Fox Television show called Inseparable. She’s playing a Psychologist to the lead. It’s about a cop who was shot and paralyzed. He develops a split personality one that’s crippled and the other one who isn’t. She’s not in the Pilot episode that much because they are establishing the main character.
• She was great to talk to, wasn’t at all squeamish about talking about BSG and what her post BSG life will be like.
• She will be at Comic-Con as part of a Cylon/Human couple. Doesn’t know if the Burn Notice folks will be doing anything.
• She hasn’t been following the looming strike.

EM Interview Highlights

By Michelle Alexandria
Originally Posted 7.2.2008

A week may be a long time in politics, but for the millions of fans of Doctor Who, this coming week is likely to be a very long week in the Who-verse.    I’m not going to spoil that "To Be Continued" cliff-hanger (and boy, what a cliff-hanger!) at the end of series 4’s penultimate episode "Stolen Earth"; it’s too brilliant a piece of television to want to give the game away.  Just watch it and enjoy the episode when it comes your way and gasp along with the rest of the audience.   There is no trailer for next week either, so the producers really are keeping everything tightly under their Welsh hats.

(more…)

BURBANK — June 25, 2008 – On a new episode of NBC’s returning drama “Chuck” (Mondays, 8-9 p.m. ET), Special Agent Sarah Walker (series star Yvonne Strahovski, “Gone”) gets a bad blast from the past when she comes face to face with her high school nemesis — played by guest star Nicole Richie (”The Simple Life”) — for broadcast this fall.

Richie will guest-star in the episode as the snarky and spiteful girl who tortured Sarah in school — and now Sarah must face her fears when she is forced to attend her 10-year high school reunion for a mission with Chuck (series star Zachary Levi, “Less Than Perfect”) as her date.

“Nicole auditioned for the part and was very funny,” said executive producer Josh Schwartz. “This role is a great opportunity for her to show off her comedic skills and be diabolically evil and kick some butt. It’s going to be really fun.”

Richie recently was featured in cover stories for People magazine and Harper’s Bazaar. Touted as a style icon, her fashion statements are regularly featured online, in print and on entertainment news shows. In addition to “The Simple Life,” on which she co-starred with Paris Hilton, Richie has guest starred on shows such as “8 Simple Rules … for Dating My Teenage Daughter” and “American Dreams.” Richie is also launching a jewelry line, House of Harlow 1960, in the upcoming fall.

“Chuck” is a high-concept action comedy that follows Chuck Bartowski (Levi), a regular twentysomething whose life is thrown into disarray after his friend, a CIA agent, sends him an e-mail which results in the world’s secrets becoming embedded in his mind. Chuck is just an ordinary guy who spends his days solving problems at an electronics store with a band of nerdy cohorts and longing to find a woman who can appreciate him. He never asked to become the government’s most powerful weapon, but suddenly the fate of the country lies in his unlikely hands. Agents Sarah Walker (Strahovski) and John Casey (series star Adam Baldwin, “Serenity”) are assigned to protect him.

From College Hill Pictures, Wonderland Sound and Vision in association with Warner Bros. Television, “Chuck” was created by Josh Schwartz & Chris Fedak and is executive produced by Schwartz and McG.

So here’s the thing, a few weeks ago USA Network contacted me out of the blue and said hey, would you like to come down to Miami for a little Junket for Burn Notice. I was like hells yeah - even though I had no idea what Burn Notice was. But I’m always up for a free trip. Then after a few round of emails, I asked are they paying for it. Nope, had to pay for it out of my own pocket. But I was still going to go. After boning up a bit on the show (as much as I could - considering all the power outages in the last two weeks), I got even more excited. The show is just a really cool, fun riff on the "spy" genre. We had such a good time during the day and I got so much material that we’re launching a Burn Notice page later this week. And it’s been ages since there was a show set in Miami (that I watched.) So during the press day, we interviewed 10 different people and it was in the air. Jeffrey’s presence was felt throughout the day, he is the star of the show and everything is on his shoulders. The cast and crew spoke glowingly of him and when you meet him in person you can understand why. He’s drool worthy, funny, charming, and amazingly down to earth. Oh yeah, he even has a great dog.

Jeffrey Donovan: Alright, all of you should not be drinking any soda. No soda. No soda.

Panel: [laughs] Uh oh!

JD: How’s it going? Have you had a good day today, so far? You got to interview everybody exciting so far…

Panel: We’ve been waiting for you!

JD: It’s all downhill from me. All downhill.

Panel: Sharon Gless talked you up a lot.

JD: Oh, my mama. My mama. [laughter] Isn’t she amazing?

Panel: She said nothing but lovely things about you.

JD: She’s been like a mother to me down here. She is so great. Her and her husband, Barney – you know famous producer – they’re just so great. I wish they were my parents.

Panel: She seemed like she’s pretty much adopted you.

JD: Yeah, she has, she has. I’m filing papers next week.

Panel: Everyone said you don’t sweat, what’s the secret to that?

JD: [laughs] Who’s everyone?

(more…)

Starz Inside has quickly become one of my favorite series of television documentaries. If you are a fan of Pop Culture, this series is made for you. In the last few months they took us inside Pixar Animation, gave us an in-depth look at the creators of Animation, showed us men behind some of our favorite Video Games, and this week, on June 10, we Starz Inside shows us genius’ behind our favorite comic books.  This is the summer of the Superhero film so naturally this amazingly detailed documentary starts off in the obvious place - showing us how the film industry has embraced Comic-Books. We see some footage of the upcoming the upcoming Hellboy II film.  The documentary focuses primarily on the history of comic book films. Starting with the aforementioned Hellboy II then delves into the history of some of the pulp films from the 40s with some vintage clips.  The do a really nice segment on the Superman and Batman films 

It’s amazing seeing this little segment because it shows just how cyclical this business called show is.  And the more things change, the more they stay the same. The doc touches a bit on how Capital Hill investigated comics during the 50s. Apparently there was a sexual relationship between Batman and Robin. This witch hunt led to the creation of the Comic-book code, but it ended up scaring Hollywood. I want to watch Fritz the Cat! Wow, talk about racy. Did you know Stallone and Eastwood were both up for Superman?  What makes the Starz Inside Series so strong is that they always attack a topic that most stodgy documentaries would avoid.  They do it and handle their topics with love and care.  The reverence the producers have for this material really comes through, without being pretentious or stodgy. It manages to strike just the right tone.  The pacing and amount of material covered is just right. Starz Inside: Comic Books Unbound premieres June 10, at 10pm.

Final Grade A

EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
Originally posted 6.07.08

Considering it was a one day junket with a nice dinner, I learned a lot during my weekend visit to the Miami Set of USA Network’s hit new show - Burn Notice. This trip came out of my own pocket so don’t worry about me being bought off. Although I am for sale and still dreaming of my first paid studio trip. First and foremost interviewing 10 people in one day could have been a chore, but we made an agreement amongst ourselves that each one of us editors (A shout out goes to IGN, Ramblings of a TV Whore, The TV Addict, TV Squad, and Fan Bolt) would do one transcript each. So for a change, it won’t take a month for you all to get full QAs from everyone. Another thing is, we got so much information and we’re going to have so many photos, that I think we’ll be launching a brand new special section devoted to Burn Notice. It’s a great show that deserves some love. In the meantime here’s part one of things that I learned attending the Burn Notice Junket.

Sharon Gless Still got "It."

• Sharon Gless is a television legend and she doesn’t even know it. When I asked her "What’s it like to be a legend?" She blushed and doesn’t consider herself a trailblazer.
• She adores her co-star Jeffrey Donovan. When she talks about him, you can almost tell she would like to adopt him.
• The rumors that she and Tyne Daly don’t get along are false. Talks about Tyne with great reverence and love. They are actually flying to London together next week to do a talk show.
• There have been talks of a brand new Cagney and Lacey movie with them being somehow involved. Apparently there’s been a revival in it’s popularity overseas.
• She let slip a plot point about this season’s Burn Notice - Apparently Madeline and Michael are going to do some family counseling.

(more…)

When people ask me what my top 10 favorite films of all time are, I generally ignore the question because it only gives people a chance to try and come across as pretentious. Oh, they’ll say the usual, “The Godfather,” “Citizen Cane,” “Psycho,” “Gone With the Wind,” etc. Personally, I despise “Citizen Cane,” and think “The Godfather” is good, but overrated, “Wind” bores me to tears. My top 10 always changes but my favorite film has never changed – my answer has always been “V – The Original Mini-series.” Writer/Director Kenneth Johnson crafted a masterpiece with this movie. If it aired today, it probably wouldn’t have had the same impact on me as it did when I was a kid. I’m more jaded and the Internet would have ruined all of the surprises the movie had.

(more…)

As Big Brother launches yet again on British TV, with another group of talentless wannabees (yawn), and I’d Do Anything has found “the people’s Nancy” (yay! for the wonderful Jodie Prenger!), we only have The Apprentice in the frame as worth watching for a fascinating slice of reality TV life.

The Apprentice sees 16 would-be tycoons vying for a coveted training place in Sir Alan Sugar’s empire, with a magnificent six-figure salary as the prize.

Last week Sir Alan (pictured with his two sidekicks, Margaret and Nick), couldn’t decide which two of the last four to put through to next week’s final, so he wimped out and let all four go through. Well, it was presented as wimping out, but Sir Alan doesn’t really do that, does he? No, this was purely for telly-generated drama purposes, just as when, a few weeks ago, he summarily fired two rather than the usual one candidate, to spice things up.

(more…)

The Dead Zone has been one of the most consistently intelligently written fantasy/science fiction series on television during its run. The story of John Smith [Anthony Michael Hall], who came out of a six-year coma with heightened psychic abilities, has mixed mythology eps dealing with Smith’s efforts to prevent Armageddon with standalone eps that dealt with his using his ability to save lives, reunite loved ones and other smaller arcs that were treated as no less important.

The final season of the series was moved to Montreal, bringing in a wealth of new guest-stars [like ReGenesis’ Maxim Roy and Brothers’ & Sisters’ Tom Skerritt – along with returnees like Jennifer Finnegan, as Smith’s equally psychic friend, Alex Sinclair. Two deaths in the premiere set in motion arcs that find Smith and Sarah Bannerman [Nicole De Boer] and now Vice-President Greg Stilson [Sean Patrick Flanery] in oddly affecting relationships, while J.J. [now portrayed by Connor Price] deals with tragedy, discovers girls and learns that the VP cheats at cards. Finally, everything comes to a truly unexpected head in the finale, Denouement.

Overall, the final season of The Dead Zone is a delight. It echoes the show’s first season in many ways – including a second coma for Smith! The writing is consistently above average and there are yet new ways shown for Smith to have visions – some quite staggering in their intensity and length. I didn’t find any of the eps to be below average, which is unusual, and many were excellent – especially the premiere, Heritage, and the finale, Denouement. While the entire cast is excellent, Connor Price deserves kudos for coming into the series for its last season and seeming like he’d always been there.

Features: Audio Commentaries for Heritage – by Executive Producers Lloyd Segan and Scott Shepherd, Connor Price [J.J.] and John L. Adams [Bruce]; Re-Entry – by Executive Producer/Series Co-Creator Shawn Piller and Writers Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn; Numb – by Executive Producer/Series co-Creator Shawn Piller and Writer Dana Greenblatt, and Denouement – by Executive Producers Lloyd Segan, Scott Shepherd and Shawn Piller, and Connor Price [J.J.]; A New Home For The Dead Zone – a Featurette detailing how the series was moved to Montreal, and All Aboard: Filming The Dead Zone on a Train – behind the scenes on the episode Switch.

Grade: The Dead Zone: The Final Season – A-

Grade: Features: A

Final Grade: A-

Universal Pictures digital Platforms Group announcing their introduction of a Mobile Battlestar Galactica Game that they developed in partnership with Glu Mobile. The game is set aboard “the legendary BSG-75” where the player is in a “top down shooter position” for an adventure that “stretches from one end of the galaxy to the other.”

How to Play “Battlestar Galactica”
Battlestar Galactica is a top-down shooter game that stations the player aboard the legendary BSG-75.  Players have a chance to pilot three types of Vipers or Raptors while defending the Fleet against relentless Cylon attacks. Players begin the game as “rookies” and progress in rank as they play. With each promotion, players unlock new features within the game.

There are 24 possible missions and additional training missions, as well as bonus stages and intense boss battles.  “Battlestar Galactica” also allows for multiple-stackable ship upgrades and Wingman powerups.

“On television, ‘Battlestar Galactica’ is incredibly visual and full of action and we wanted to deliver that same exhilarating experience to the mobile phone gamer,” says Jeremy Laws, Senior Vice-President, Mobile & Broadband, Universal Pictures Digital Platforms Group.

“Battlestar Galactica” is now available on most major wireless carriers in North America and will be available worldwide shortly.