Television has an abundance of things, but great original ideas are not high among them. Many promising new series have set sail in TV's vast ocean, only to be dashed against the jagged rocks of audience indifference, sinking out of sight forever.
But just as sequels, prequels and reboots help Hollywood overcome its creative deficit in film, spin-offs can be a way of taking a known TV quantity and fashioning it into something new. Sometimes it works so well you get Inception-style layers of spin-offery, such as the military legal drama JAG producing the spin-off NCIS, which in turn was spun off into NCIS: Los Angeles.
Once Mel Brooks began to "make a noise," thankfully he never shut up There’s an apt evaluation in the first minute of the documentary Mel Brooks: Make a Noise. "Mel was not interested in the little laugh," observes writer/director Barry Levinson. "He literally wanted you to collapse and fall on the ground and can’t ... Read more
'SNL' season finale full of goodbyes As Stefon would say: This Saturday Night Live had everything. Kanye West, Jennifer Garner, Anderson Cooper, a musical super group, a surprise guest appearance from Amy Poehler and what looks like the departure of not one, but three cast members. Bill ... Read more
Reporter congratulates Matthew Perry on sitcom axe In what could be one of the biggest live celebrity interview fails of all time, a Fox sports reporter congratulated Matthew Perry on the cancellation of his show “Go On” (which lasted one season) during an NHL game. The impromptu interview ... Read more
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