Time for another Richard Recommends here on the site and this time around it’s back to HBO for their latest Sunday night comedy.

Nope it’s not the heavily hyped Girls, which I sampled and personally found quite grim and grubby. Instead I’ve found myself thoroughly enjoying Veep, the new Julia Louis Dreyfus show that tonally feels like a combination of The Office and The West Wing and has got off to a cracking start! BUT I have one reservation – more on that in a moment…
First the good stuff! Just a few episodes into its run and Veep is already whip-smart, laugh out loud funny and chock full of quotable one liners. I love the way each of the shows has built across the course of each episode, with misunderstanding piled upon misunderstanding and a mix of both high and lowbrow jokes. Who would have thought filibuster reform and clean energy bills could possibly be so funny?

As I wrote in my Coming Soon post just over a month ago, Veep follows Vice President Selina Meyer as she navigates the most powerless position in politics with her staff of incompetents. Okay, correction they’re not all totally terrible! Chief Of Staff Amy (Anna Chlumsky) seems reasonably on the ball, and political maneuverer Dan (Reid Scott), the Deputy Director Of Communications and a rather handsome devil to boot, at least has the smarts to figure out solutions to the myriad of problems befalling his office.

But elsewhere – oh boy! There’s clueless personal aide Gary (Tony Hale) who stumbles from one catastrophe to another, and Mike (Matt Walsh) the Director Of Communications who seems to go constantly off message. And then there’s Jonah, the White House liaison to the VP, a portrait of pure smugness who revels in his higher profile position with the real Washington power player.

At its best Veep is fast and very, very funny. The cast are expert at the art of caustic put downs and I love how the show doesn’t talk down to its audience – you really do have to work to keep up. We’re not exactly talking Two Broke Girls here!

Now that caveat! As much as I’ve enjoyed Veep recently I do wish there was a little more warmth among the show’s cast members. Put simply it can get pretty old pretty fast to have characters constantly sniping at one another. Now I certainly don’t expect – or want – the show to descend into constant hugs and high fives but would a bit of bonding be out of the question? When your whole cast of characters all hate one another it’s kind of depressing! I actually enjoyed seeing Amy and Dan recently working together schmoozing a pair of sleazy politicians – it was a refreshing change. Dan is a total slimebag but you also know that as the two most attractive cast members, he and Amy are so going to end up sleeping together!

Okay slight gripe over! Overall I think Veep has great growth potential and could become quite a long-term player for HBO in the years to come.

But what do you think? Are you watching Veep and are you a fan? Or did you sample and decide to pass? Comment away…

When Does It Start:

In A Nutshell: Clint Eastwood’s wife scores her own reality show. Yep, take that in!

What’s It About: Meet Dina Eastwood. She’s married to a Hollywood legend but also has a ‘busy’ life of her own. There’s Clint’s daughter Francesca and their own 15-year-old kid Morgan – both headstrong and opinionated. Plus Dina is busy with her own pet project – mentoring a South African boy-band called Overtone who she’s now relocated to the States. Dina’s brother is the band’s ‘manager’ so expect plenty of sibling rivalry there! And of course there’s Dina’s life as part of Hollywood royalty. Am I the only person feeling bad for Clint Eastwood right about now?

Click here to view the embedded video.

 Plus Points: I’m sure E! have been high-fiving themselves for a while now, unable to believe that they actually scored a reality show with Clint Eastwood’s wife! And though it’s clear that the legendary actor himself won’t be making too many appearances on the show this is still quite a casting coup. The Eastwood name clearly still carries substantial cache and carries more credibility than say the Kardashians. Personally I’m just amazed that the fairly press shy Clint gave his blessing to the show. What was he thinking?

Mrs Eastwood And Company will doubtless be the usual slick and polished E! production. You already know what the storylines are going to be. Let me take a guess – the band has a showcase, Morgan starts dating and Dina doesn’t approve, Dina has a magazine shoot and runs late, etc. E! can churn these shows out in their sleep – and yet they almost always score ratings success. Don’t expect Mrs Eastwood to buck the trend…

On The Downside: What is it with celebrity moms called Dina?

Scanning through Dina Eastwood’s Wikipedia page it’s hard to figure out what exactly it is that she does. Dina seems to have been a small time news anchor / reporter (which is how she met Clint) and now, alongside managing Overtone, is also on the board of trustees of a Californian museum. Not exactly a glowing resume is it.

My instinct tells me this is yet another desperate-to-be-famous Hollywood wife trading on her husband’s reputation to try and raise her own celebrity profile. One glimpse at the trailer and you can already see what’s in store – Kardashian style family shenanigans, faked emotional moments, ridiculously contrived jeopardy and a few quick glimpses of Clint to add some credibility to the whole project.

Please explain to me what Dina Eastwood knows about managing a band? Talk about a contrived – and frankly silly – storyline. It’s clear that the Eastwood family with just two on-screen daughters wasn’t big enough for a reality show so the series has brought in the members of Overtone to fill out the ranks. To me it reeks of desperation. Still at least the band are getting exposure – it’s a win win for them! But talk about fake…

Of course that’s all typical E! I’ve long had a problem with the network’s obsession with the rich and semi-famous and the dubious standards the networks promotes via its current and former shows (The Kardashians, Ice Loves Coco, The Girls Next Door). Which is a shame as the network does have some fun shows – True Hollywood Story, The Soup and Fashion Police for example. I guess I just have a problem with people who are rewarded when they actually haven’t done anything for their success. And please don’t tell me what the Kardashians ‘do’ is actually work!

Prediction: I’d love to see the end of these C-list celebrity reality shows but the E! audience laps them up. Expect Mrs Eastwood to do big business and run and run…

It’s that time of the year again when the broadcast networks make a whole heap of renewal and cancellation announcements – and TV people like me nod or shake our heads vociferously at the news!

Soon we’ll hear about all the new shows on the way – but in the meantime here’s my take on five key lessons learned from this week’s announcements.

NETWORKS DON’T RUSH! ABC renewed a whole heap of freshmen series, including my favorite not-so-guilty pleasure Revenge. To which I say – ‘what the heck took you so long ABC?’

Seriously why on earth did the alphabet network leave it until May to announce Revenge’s renewal when it was obvious to everyone with a pulse that the Madeline Stowe soap opera would get another year? Revenge is ABC’s best performing Wednesday at 10pm show in years and is also thrashing the pants of fellow 10pm shows like Scandal, GCB and Private Practice. Why not announce at the start of the year? For an arced show like Revenge an early renewal could have attracted new fans wary at the thought of committing to a possibly cancelled show. It’s what NBC did with Smash – so why didn’t ABC follow suit?

The same could also be said for Suburgatory, Once Upon A Time and Castle. None of these shows were in any danger of going anywhere… so why the wait?

TOTAL VIEWERS DON’T MATTER: Hmm, here’s an interesting one. NBC is firmly in last place among the big four networks. It’s total viewers for shows are pitiful compared to the likes of CBS. Yet Harry’s Law is pretty much the network’s top performer in terms of total viewers – averaging around 8 million viewers. That’s more than the heavily hyped Smash (now at the 6 million mark) and WAY more than cult comedies like 30 Rock and Community (which get about 3 million viewers). Yet all three of these shows are coming back – and Harry’s Law is getting the chop!

The reason – the Kathy Burke starrer skews terribly old – last week only managing a 0.8 in the 18-49 demo. That’s a truly horrible figure.

I get why Harry’s Law is being cancelled but at the same time when your network is in as terrible a state at NBC is – surely total viewers have to count for something? One of the key problems for NBC at the moment is that it can’t launch new shows because no one is watching the adverts the network runs. Couldn’t those 8 million Harry’s Law fans be of some use to the network in spreading the word about the net’s new shows?

Then to add insult to injury, NBC renews the utter bomb that is Whitney – a show that is NEVER going to take off. Ouch!

THE CW IS IN A TRULY HORRIBLE STATE! When a network only has a limited number of slots (about 9 scripted slots in total) and ends up ordering FIVE new series you know they’re not doing great. And when one of those orders ends up being Gossip Girl, which is now scoring less than a million viewers an episode despite being a costly scripted drama, you can smell the desperation!

Okay to be fair Gossip Girl is only getting a shortened final season, but even so the ratings for The CW for the 2011-12 season have been nothing short of nightmarish. Promising hits came and went (goodbye Ringer and The Secret Circle), reliable franchises crashed and burned (Top Model – what happened) and only ONE show on the network’s slate regularly scores over 2 million viewers a week – The Vampire Diaries.

As for the network’s Fall slate – I smell trouble ahead… why commission Sex And The City prequel The Carrie Diaries when Ringer proved that adult women don’t watch The CW? Also ran superhero spin-off Arrow will likely score just a fraction of the Smallville audience. And is there anyone out there who wants to see ANOTHER version of Beauty And The Beast? I ask again – how long can this network stay in business?

SHONDA RHIMES OWNS ABC: Or at least it sure feels that way!

Grey’s Anatomy is back. Scandal just got picked up after a decently rated Spring trial run. Private Practice is geting a (shortened) final season. And Rhimes has a fourth drama – Gilded Lilys – in contention for The Fall. Phew!

And she’s not alone. Glee creator Ryan Murphy saw his NBC comedy The New Normal picked up for series (along with his Fox series of course), still has American Horror Story on FX and technically The Glee Project is his too!

And while Alcatraz has been cut loose J.J. Abrams still has Fringe on Fox, Person Of Interest (doing big business) on CBS and NBC just picked up his new show Revolution.

SOMETIMES PATIENCE PAYS OFF: In this day and age of short attention spans we’re used to quick cancellations for underperforming shows (witness Bent, Best Friends Forever and Free Agents). And normally when networks stick with middling shows I’m the first to complain that they’re throwing good money after bad (hello Chuck and Fringe) But sometimes – very rarely – shows DO build up momentum down the line.

Witness NCIS which started its first season averaging around 12 million viewers a week – and now 8 years later is the highest rated scripted show on TV, with 19 million per episode!

Which brings me to Shark Tank, my favorite network reality show which has just been rewarded with its first full 22 episode series order, after becoming a bona fide Friday night hit. Sure Shark Tank is no NCIS, but season to season it’s up by a third in viewers and with our current economic situation seems to have tapped into a national thirst for entrepreneurship and deal making. Looks like the sharks are finally swimming…

So it looks like we’re one step closer to finalizing the line-up for this year’s X Factor USA. Numerous news outlets are now reporting as fact that Britney Spears will be joining Simon Cowell, L.A.Reid and a still to be announced fourth judge come the Fall on this year’s X Factor judging panel. But will Britney’s appearance be enough to win over viewers?

Short answer – yes! Look having Britney on the X Factor can hardly hurt the show any worse than the combination of Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger already have! I’ve made my feelings on X Factor season 1 well known here on the site, but in short I thought the first US series of the long running Brit hit was a rare fumble from Simon Cowell. The outspoken Brit had 18 months to secure a top team for his pivotal music competition series – and yet the best he could manage was an early 90’s pop star who hadn’t scored a hit in almost 2 decades and a former girl band singer whose solo career had failed repeatedly around the world.

The fact that The X Factor actually achieved even halfway decent ratings was a testament to the power of Cowell himself and the relentless Fox marketing machine. But there’s no way Fox will spend half as much money this time around. So if Cowell wants people to tune in to season 2 he needs a big gimmick. And Britney is essentially it.

On the plus side you have to admit that Spears is a bona fide star. Her last album, Femme Fatale, may have been the lowest selling of her career but it still shifted over 850,000 copies in the US, and delivered 3 top 10 hits, including a number one (Hold It Against Me). That’s a darn sight better than The Voice’s Christina Aguilera, whose 2010 album Bionic sold just 300,000 copies and couldn’t even scrape a Top 20 hit.

Then there’s the fact that Britney is still major tabloid fodder. From that schoolgirl outfit to K. Fed to the famous head-shaving breakdown to the disastrous Vh1 performance, Spears is a headline-generating machine. And you can bet Fox are just rubbing their hands together at the prospect at all the attention she’ll likely bring to The X Factor.

Okay that’s the good news… now the bad…

Sure Britney is a star and a big name – but let’s be honest, she’s not exactly the most articulate of celebrities. And since her very public breakdown a few years back Britney has become even less communicative. My concern is that Britney was hired simply on her star power alone rather than her actual ability to do the job. Can you really see Britney offering a harsh critique to a contestant? And even if she did, given her own over-reliance on auto-tune, does she have the credibility to offer actual vocal advice? If you were an X Factor contestant would you want Britney as your mentor? Remember how last year’s batch virtually groaned the moment they heard they were on Nicole’s team!

The X Factor is a different show to American Idol and really needs its judges to know their stuff. Though her groups were quickly eliminated last year, at least Paula Abdul was able to bring her choreography skills into play. What can Britney bring? Will she constantly ‘pick’ safe and predictable song choices like Alone and Against All Odds? And how on earth can she compete with experienced and successful record producers like Cowell and L.A.Reid?

I have a feeling Britney will turn out to be perfectly pleasant and bring Fox the headlines they so desperately want. But I also fear we may be heading for more Jennifer Lopez / Steven Tyler style blandness and inanity. We’ve already seen what that’s done for Idol’s ratings. Will The X Factor fare the same….?

But what do you think? Is Britney a good choice for a judge? And how do you think she’ll do… comment away!

It’s almost the end of the run for Smash, the heavily hyped drama series set behind the scenes of a Broadway musical – and you can almost hear the sighs of relief over at NBC!

A few weeks ago Smash was renewed for a second season, a move some thought premature. And they might be right. Since its launch in January, Smash has gradually lost viewers week after week, and is now in the danger zone of around 6 million viewers an episode (and a 1.8 18-49 share). For NBC that’s just about okay. Any other network and the show would be toast!

However it’s not just the Smash ratings that are likely a cause of concern for NBC – creatively they’ve probably been a little worried too. I’m a big Smash fan, but even I have to concede the show is all over the shop at times and needs a good shake up for Season 2. That’s probably why the series’ original show runner Theresa Rebeck is out, replaced by Gossip Girl exec producer Joshua Safran. Doubtless Joshua has a pretty clear idea of what needs to change for the show’s second season… but here’s my list!

LESS POP, MORE BROADWAY: If Smash really wants to stand on its own feet as a unique series it really needs to stop trying to be Glee. Hearing Karen (Katherine McPhee) and Ivy (Megan Hilty) sing songs from the show’s Bombshell musical totally works. Seeing the duo in Times Square performing a cringe worthy rendition of Rihanna’s ‘Cheers (Drink To That)’ – definitely doesn’t.

In its first few episodes Smash has been too concerned with being relevant to a young audience. But guess what – they’re probably never going to watch. Instead Smash should stay authentic to its musical theater roots and restrict itself to songs from its show-within-a-show musical or Broadway classics. And if you need the cast to burst into spontaneous verse – I’d far rather adopt the style of the wonderful Bollywood style daydream from a few weeks ago – than another ‘let’s-hit-the-karaoke-bar!’ scene.

LOSE THE DOMESTIC DRAMAS: 5 seconds. That’s about as long as it took for me to be bored stupid by Julia’s (Debra Messing) adoption storyline with her tiresome husband Frank. Do I really care that the dull married couple want to adopt another child, or that it means a lot to their irritating teenage son Leo (what kind of teen gets tearful over the idea of having a baby sister?) Am I the only person who found myself secretly rooting for Julia and her adulterous lover Michael? Ditto Karen’s slowly disintegrating relationship with her boyfriend Dev, and Eileen’s (Angelica Huston) cougar bait lover Nick.

Smash is at its best when it concentrates on the backstage intrigue behind Bombshell – the backstabbing, eavesdropping, paranoia and bed hopping among the cast. I don’t need another season of Brothers And Sisters…

ENOUGH WITH THE POISON IVY: In the Smash pilot, Ivy was the chorus girl who’d waited years for her big break and would do anything for her breakout role. She was talented, insecure, funny, charming and determined.

But as soon as Ivy snagged the Marilyn lead the Smash writers seem to have been on a mission to transform her into Cruella DeVil. Ivy’s charm went out the window as she became a full-blown diva, plotting against her understudy Karen and screwing up week after week. To make Ivy look even worse, Karen has remained as sweet and innocent as ever. Guess who the audience are meant to sympathize with?

But here’s the deal. Smash would be a lot more interesting if its two leading ladies weren’t always so black and white. We know why Ivy is insecure but let’s start seeing her nicer side too. And come on Karen, you could stand to get a bit more down and dirty as well. It’s actually been a refreshing change to see the two characters bond a bit more recently. So let’s have less one-note villainy and more subtlety please. Remember how cartoonish Sue Sylvester eventually became on Glee…

GUEST STARS ARE GOOD NEWS: I’m not normally a fan of guest stars on shows – too many celebrity faces proved detrimental to series like Will And Grace and (again) Glee. Yet Smash is one of the few shows where guest stars actually work within the world of the series – both playing themselves and as different characters.

Uma Thurman has been great as the demanding, insecure and out of her depth A-lister Rebecca Duvall, trying to make her theatrical debut and realizing she’s totally out of her comfort zone. I also enjoyed Nick Jonas as former child star Lyle West and a potential investor in Bombshell. And though her role was overwritten and overwrought, Bernadette Peters at least allowed us to (finally) see a more sympathetic side to Ivy when she guest starred as her selfish stage mom.

So feel free to keep going on the star cameos and guest arcs Smash. Just don’t overdo it!

SHOW THE BUSINESS: Finally there’s one big trick that I think Smash is really missing out on…

One of the key problems of Smash is that it sometimes doesn’t feel as though it’s written by people who work in the theater – and that’s a big mistake. Just like The West Wing took us behind the scenes of politics and ER threw us into the frantic world of emergency medicine, Smash should be filled with insider knowledge from the theatrical world. The cast should speak the language of theater as they untangle song lyrics, block scenes and create sets. As a viewer I want a peek inside this industry – the ups, the downs, the stresses. But we’ve hardly seen any of this reality so far…

Who’s designing the Bombshell sets and costumes? Why does Eileen need so much money to stage the show – and where does it go? And why is the show’s stage manager Linda, such a barely there character (her ‘smoothie scene’ with Rebecca was her biggest moment so far!) Watching Smash you’d think the only people making Bombshell were songwriters Tom and Julia and director Derek. I don’t think so! Next season I hope the show goes much more behind the scenes of the making of a Broadway show and really shows the blood, sweat and tears that goes into a production. There’s a lot more to making a show than casting the lead…

So those are my suggestions – but what do you think? Are you still a Smash fan or did you give up along the way? And what do you think the show needs to do next season to stop its ratings slide?

When Does It Start: Wednesday 9^th May at 10pm EST on Bravo

In A Nutshell: It’s The Amazing Race meets Top Chef as 12 chefs embark on a culinary race around the globe.

What’s It About: 12 chefs travel around the globe, competing at each stage in a series of culinary tests based around the countries they’re visiting. The contestants must learn local customs – and recipes – before facing a kitchen cook off, where the losing contestant is sent packing. Hosting the show are celebrity chefs Curtis Stone (Top Chef: Masters) and Cat Cora (Iron Chef America)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Plus Points: Okay first up I have to give kudos to Bravo for at least attempting a big, splashy show rather than unveiling yet another ‘aren’t rich people fabulous’ docu-series. I’ve been a vocal critic of the network and its obsession with the 1% for a while now and Around The World In 80 Plates is at least an ambitious and bold move in the right direction. Screw the Real Housewives!

I’m a Curtis Stone fan (random fact – I actually passed him outside my apartment building a few months ago) and think that’s he’s warm, engaging and very watchable. I also like that he doesn’t play into the Gordon Ramsey shouty chef cliché. Plus I used to love The Amazing Race and enjoyed Food Network’s similarly themed Great Food Truck Race so the DNA of 80 Plates is definitely to my taste.

Bravo have done a decent job of promoting Around The World and the ratings bar will be far lower on the cable network than if this were a broadcast network series. 80 Plates could be a smart way to extend the channel’s foodie brand away from the fading Top Chef franchise…

On The Downside: ANOTHER food show on Bravo? I mean seriously!

After 9 seasons of Top Chef and its spin off shows, Top Chef Masters and Top Chef: Just Desserts AND the recently announced Top Chef Juniors, is there still really an audience for more cooking shows on the network? Personally I think Bravo has become as over-reliant on the Top Chef franchise as they have on the Real Housewives series – and eventually it’s going to cause some serious ratings problems down the line. Even the network now realizes that they’ve been trying to force feed certain genres – food, design, fashion – down their audience’s throats!

Around The World looks expensive and you do have to wonder how big the show’s budget was. It actually feels more like a network show and I wonder if the series was originally developed as an NBC series (obviously NBC owns Bravo) that got passed over to Bravo during development. With all the logistics of international travel, filming permits, accommodation, flights, pricey hosts, etc this has to be the most expensive show on the network’s slate. But I have a feeling it won’t score even a fraction of the ratings of an average Real Housewives episode. Let’s remember that Stone’s last cooking competition series – America’s Next Great Restaurant – flopped for NBC a year ago (with the winner’s restaurant chain quickly folding) Did Next Great Restaurant cause NBC to rethink their own future cooking series?

I used to be a big Bravo fan but over the last couple of years I think the network has definitely lost its way, replacing substance with style and dropping its production standards badly. Check out my recent appraisals of Tabatha Takes Over and Kathy Griffin for more! Around The World In 80 Plates is a welcome return to the Project Runway formats the network used to excel in but I can’t help feel the whole concept feels reheated. Is there anyone out there still eager for an Amazing Race style cookery show? We’re not exactly talking groundbreaking here!

Prediction: I suspect 80 Plates will perform respectably for Bravo – but given its sky-high budget, don’t expect a second season…

 

Working in the TV industry is definitely a tough job at times. The hours can be horrendous, there’s a lot of stress, budgets are never big enough and networks can certainly be a challenge to work with!

But there’s one aspect of the industry that should be easy – but never is. Hiring staff. I honestly think there’s more BS in the US TV world than in any other industry I’ve come across. The lying is so brazen it’s stunning!

I’ve had people who’ve worked for me as interns suddenly calling themselves producers; people giving credits on their resumes for shows they’ve never even worked on; and a non stop succession of staff claiming credit for developing shows and projects that you know they had pretty much zero hand in.

How do I know all this? Because unfortunately like everyone else in the industry I’ve hired some of these people – and a couple of weeks after they come on board the truth becomes apparent. That’s the point where you realize that the wonderful person you interviewed is either a) chronically lazy, b) hopelessly disorganized c) plain incompetent d) incapable of working as part of a team or e) all of the above! Oh boy – then you’ve got a problem!

Unfortunately because of the way the TV industry works it’s very hard to let a bad hire go. Often you employ staff on short-term contracts – say 2-3 months – so when you find out in week 4 that your staff member is a nightmare it’s often MORE disruptive to fire them, find someone else and have them finish of the show. The result – you sometimes have to grin and bear it. Sometimes the person gets a bit better – but normally they don’t.

By the way if you’re wondering why I mentioned the US angle earlier on this post, here’s why – in general I think the lying among TV staff in America is ten times worse than in the UK, where I’m originally from. In Britain people tend to undersell themselves, they’re very humble and don’t like to brag which can be both a virtue AND annoying. But here in the US the culture is too OVERSELL yourself – which often morphs into blatant lying! Somewhere in the middle would be the ideal!

Added to this is the desperate need for today’s twenty-something set to want it all NOW! Forget the idea of paying your dues and working your way up the career ladder – today’s college grads want the title and the pay grade straight away. Now I’ve hired some terrific young guys and girls (gosh I feel old now) who haven’t been this way at all. But boy have I met some monsters too! It would actually make a great topic for a TV show itself (which is kind of what HBO’s Girls could be if it wasn’t so grim and grubby!)

Now I’ve only ever really worked in the TV industry so maybe this kind of blatant lying happens in every job sector. But I think there are a couple of factors that exaggerate the problem in the TV world.  One is that the industry is so transitory – people come and go from jobs very quickly and often shows hire big teams where it’s easy for people to grab extra credit for work they didn’t do. Added to this is the lack of formal training in the industry. It’s remarkable how unregulated the TV business is – hardly anyone attends courses or seminars and there are no real qualifications to be a producer or director – people learn on the fly. All hires really are a crap shoot!

I want to end on a positive note though and thankfully there are a lot of GREAT people in the industry. I’ve had the pleasure of working with many terrific and talented hires over the years – people who roll up their sleeves, get stuck in, are a joy to be around and have their shit together! When you find the good people you try and keep hold of them. They’re the ultimate difference between the success or failure of a project.

So come on TV people – have you encountered the same problem? What bad apples have you come across? And do you think the problem is worse in TV compared to other industries? Is resume lying rampant across other industries as well?

This is one my Brit friends should find quite amusing…

If you’ve been watching Game Of Thrones since its 2011 launch you’ll doubtless recognize the character of Bronn, the morally dubious sidekick of Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage – arguably the standout star of the show).

Bronn is deadly, rough and pretty grubby and is played by a Brit actor called Jerome Flynn, who’ll likely mean nothing to US viewers. However back in the UK Jerome Flynn is very well known. Years ago he starred in a popular Brit drama called Soldier, Soldier, alongside a guy called Robson Green and in one of the show’s episodes the characters had to perform a cover of the karaoke classic Unchained Melody.

Viewers loved the performance and wanted Robson and Jerome to release it as a single but the two were hesitant. However a certain Simon Cowell came along and persuaded the pair to head to the studio and officially cover the track. The resulting single spent 7 weeks at number one in the UK!

But it doesn’t end there. Boosted by the duo’s success, Cowell kept the cash cow going for a while longer, and managed to wring a further two number one singles out of the guys – and two number one albums. But the guys also became a bit of a punchline in the UK – representing much of what was wrong with the music industry to many people.

A couple of years later the guys essentially went their own ways and slightly fell out of favor with the British public. Their music career may have made the pair some money – and household names – but it didn’t help their credibility as actors. That said Robson Green has barely stopped working since his musical success with several big series under his belt. But Jerome Flynn largely disappeared from public view.

Until now of course… thanks to Game Of Thrones, Flynn is back in the public eye with a meaty role on a critically acclaimed drama. And where’s that Simon Cowell guy these days – ha!

Anyway if you fancy comparing then and now – here’s Flynn in Game Of Thrones…

Click here to view the embedded video.

And here he is back in 1995 as part of Robson And Jerome singing Up On The Roof… he’s the blonde guy of course. But be warned it ain’t pretty!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Late last week NBC quietly cancelled Best Friends Forever – and the TV world was changed forever!

Okay, I’m joking! Let’s be honest BFF couldn’t have made less of an impact, dumped into an early Wednesday night slot with barely any publicity, the show’s last episode managed just 2.65 million viewers, even worse than the wretched Are You There, Chelsea?

But Best Friends Forever isn’t alone. This year has been a truly terrible one when it comes to mid-season shows. ABC had high hopes for The River but the supernatural saga flopped in its debut and was totally DOA by the time of its finale. Likewise Missing, the network’s Ashley Judd thriller which is doing okay in total viewers but rating so old that’s it’s a sure thing for cancellation. And even GCB is struggling to hold onto the low audience it inherits from Desperate Housewives.

NBC meanwhile had both BFF and Bent – both of which came and went in less than 3 weeks. Then there’s Awake, a critical favorite which has become the latest casualty of NBC’s Thursday at 10pm slot. And let’s not forget Fashion Star and The Firm, which despite a starry cast has been exiled to Saturday nights to finish off its ridiculously long run.

Over on The CW we’ve had Remodeled, the network’s latest attempt to duplicate the success of America’s Next Top Model – and another flop for its unscripted department. And just last week The CW debuted The LA Complex, a Canadian series which scored the lowest rated drama debut on a broadcast network ever (ironically the repeat did better than the premiere!) Even Fox isn’t immune – Kiefer Sutherland’s Touch started strong but is now dangerously close to the cancellation zone.

Okay so not every mid-season show has totally bombed. Scandal is doing okay for ABC and might return in the Fall – though that would be largely due to the star power of its producer Shonda Rhimes. And NBC’s Smash, though far from living up to its title, has found a core audience and has already been renewed for a second season.

But overall it’s been a pretty terrible mid-season. But why?

Well for starters many of these shows look and feel like dregs. The NBC comedy pair, Bent and Best Friends Forever, didn’t exactly feel like top tier shows that deserved a starry Fall launch – so it’s not surprising they were largely dumped by their network. The irony of course is that both shows received surprisingly positive reviews – certainly more so than the likes of the critically reviled Whitney and Are You There, Chelsea.

The NBC duo also received only cursory network promotion and the same is true of The LA Complex on The CW. Clearly the networks had already given up on them. But in this day and age it’s almost impossible for a show to find an audience without a pretty hefty ad campaign. Just look at Smash. It’s a hit – just – but imagine how the show would have fared without the many millions NBC spent on promoting it (not to mention that very helpful Voice lead in) That said the likes of Touch, Fashion Star and The River all received pretty splashy launches.

One problem these shows might be facing is that by mid-season viewers habits are pretty much set and they just have a lot less time to try out new shows.  If you’ve already committed to the likes of Once Upon A Time and Revenge in the Fall you’re going to be a lot less open to a new series come February. Plus bear in mind that there’s now even great competition from cable – as witnessed by the terrific ratings enjoyed by The Walking Dead. Why would viewers bother with The River when they’ve already got a horror themed show on the go (the fact that The River sucked didn’t help the soggy saga)

And of course there’s the fact that broadcast TV has been on a slide for a long time now. It’s been years since any network has launched a Desperate Housewives style hit. The 2011 – 2012 season’s biggest new show is arguably ABC’s Once Upon A Time, which averages around 10 million viewers a week and a 3.0 18-49 rating. That’s good – but hardly earth shattering. And generally depressed levels of viewership provide lower lead ins to new shows. And the cycle continues…

Plus not helping matters is another key factor – viewership levels traditionally fall in the Spring anyway. So if your show hasn’t launched by March you’re already facing an uphill battle. Poor Best Friends Forever – it never stood a chance!

But what do you think? Have you checked out any of the above shows – and what do you think of them? And what show do you think deserved a better shot at success?

We’ve all been there. You’re at a dinner party of gathering and introduced to a new acquaintance. As the conversation develops you rattle through a list of topics – food, movies, music, TV… and that’s when your new ‘friend’ drops the bombshell. You ask if they’re following Game of Thrones or the new season of Mad Men.  They reply, ‘I don’t have a TV’, acting as though this is a point of social pride.

Okay so the scenario doesn’t always play out quite like that. Sometimes people will say they ‘don’t watch much TV’ or ‘don’t have time for TV’ – but the insinuation is still the same. These are busy people leading busy lives and don’t have time for all that trash on TV. After all they’re far too cultured to waste their time on that grubby little device. Ugh!

Okay I’m exaggerating. Some people genuinely don’t watch much TV. But have you noticed how people always seem embarrassed to admit they do watch TV, as though it’s some great social vice that reflects badly on their character! To that I say ‘get over yourselves!’ You’re not that busy and frankly you’re not that interesting!

Here’s the funny thing – by American standards I actually don’t watch much TV! I probably average about 60–90 minutes a night – nothing like the 4-5 hours many people across the US take in. For starters I watch virtually everything on DVR which automatically cuts an hour long show down to 42 minutes. Plus I’m very directed in what I watch – I never channel surf. I also sample a lot of shows – mainly for work purposes. And of course I read a lot about TV and live and breathe it in my daily life. But I’d be very happy to admit that I do love TV…

To me TV has come a LONG way in the last 20 years and I honestly find the social stigma surrounding TV kind of boring and very elitist. If all you’re watching on TV is Real Housewives and the Kardashians than you should be embarrassed! But there’s seriously so much great TV out there now that I genuinely think we’re in a golden age for the medium. I used to love the movies with a passion but frankly after years of disappointments, comic book action heroes and weak comedies I definitely think TV now has the edge. Mad Men at its peak is up there with great theater. The best episodes of 24 were better than any action movie of the last decade. And there are more laughs in an average Modern Family than you’ll find at the multiplex most weekends.

I’ve always loathed snobbery and I share a similar taste for TV snobbery! What I find most astounding is when I meet people in the TV industry itself who don’t watch much TV. I’ve worked with network execs who have no idea what’s on other networks as well as hosts and experts whose knowledge of the medium they work in is pitiful. I always say if you’re an actor you better darn well be going to the movies, taking in Broadway shows and checking out what’s on the small screen. But of course these people are all too busy for that. Doing what – filing for unemployment?

As you can probably tell from reading this site, I’m unashamedly passionate about TV! But I can also tell you why I like what I like – and why it’s so great! I don’t think that makes me uncultured. It makes me smart. And anyone who still thinks TV is a waste of time in 2012 is probably the last person you’d want to be sat next to at a dinner party.

So do you agree? Do you find it a real turn off when people claim not to watch TV? And have you encountered your share of TV snobbery over the years?