PaleyFest — an annual event where the casts and creative teams behind the most popular TV shows converge to geek out for the benefit of fans — is currently underway in Los Angeles, and Gallery 1988 has commissioned a handful of artists and illustrators to design limited-edition posters for this year’s honorees, which include Freaks and Geeks, Eastbound & Down, Parks & Recreation, True Blood, Glee, and The Walking Dead. Click through to check them out, and if you like what you see, be sure to pick up your favorite in Gallery 1988’s online shop where they’re currently available for $35 a pop.
Regardless of what we might think about his ancillary projects, we all know James Franco is a good actor. But sometimes, too much method acting can be a bad thing. The LA Times reports that, at a Paley Fest panel on Saturday, the cast of Freaks and Geeks reunited without Franco (who sent in a video in lieu of appearing) — and told a few stories that suggested they might kind of hate him.
First, Judd Apatow called him a drama queen. Then, Busy Phillips came in with the big guns. In one scene, where Phillips’s Kim Kelly and Franco’s Daniel Desario were arguing, the script called for Phillips to tap Franco on the arm. When she did, he cursed at her and threw her to the ground. “I had the wind knocked out of me,” she recalled, and once she got up, she went back to her trailer and cried. According to Phillips, Franco had decided Daniel had “maybe been abused by his father, and so he didn’t want any physicality between him and his girlfriend.” But, she added, “This was unbeknownst to me.”
Rebellious and delinquent teens are among TV’s favorite tropes. They’re dangerous, romantic, and compelling all at once — and they get away with antics that aren’t so attractive on older characters. Of course, compared to the wild things who populate Skins, the British series whose American version debuts Monday on MTV, many of our favorite out-of-control teens look like honor students. So, we’re paying them tribute one last time, before they become obsolete. (Note: If you’re the kind of person who gets upset about seeing years-old plot points revealed in print, consider yourself spoiler-alerted.)
1. Emmy award-winning screenwriter David Simon, creator of The Wire, and fiction writer Yiyun Li are among this year’s recipients of the MacArthur Foundation’s $500,000 genius grants. [via WSJ]
2. This would either be amazing or a complete disaster: Darren Aronofsky wants to direct the Superman reboot that Christopher Nolan is producing. [via LAT]
3. MTV is planning to adapt the British award-winning high-school comedy series The Inbetweeners, which is described as Superbad meets Freaks and Geeks. [via Deadline]
4. Director Gore Verbinski wants to re-team with Johnny Depp on The Lone Ranger. Depp would be playing Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s sidekick. [via Deadline]
5. In case you missed it yesterday, check out the very promising teaser trailer for the Coen Brothers’ latest flick, True Grit, which stars Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin. [via The Playlist]
With yesterday’s announcement that everyone’s favorite New Zealand duo, Flight of the Conchords, would not be coming back for a third season on HBO, it got us thinking about other shows that didn’t stick around, much to the chagrin of fans. Whether it was poor ratings, contract disputes, or stars moving on to other projects, they were gone before the TV-viewing populace really knew what they were missing out on.
After the jump, our top ten TV shows that died too soon. They are gone, but never forgotten.
Once upon a pilot season, the diabolical geniuses at FOX pinpointed a rare, under served demographic — grown-up High School Musical fans — and voila! Glee was born. Skepticsbe damned, the weekly valentine to musical theater geeks found an audience right away (Josh Groban cameo’ed in the third episode, which must be some sort of record) and just scored a full-season pickup. Is it possible, though, that FOX network execs are even more cunning than we’re giving them credit for? Behind all the choreography, Glee is, at its core, a show about a teacher no 10th grader could resist crushing on. Join us as we explore this important cultural type and most timeless of secret weapons: the cute teacher. Read More »
