Results tagged “television”

Hollywood gossip columnist and sometime crazy person Nikke Finke has marked Trauma as next in line for cancellation, following on the axing of NBC's Southland, and citing the $3 million-per-episode price tag. As she writes, "When I screened the show, I was rooting for the helicopter to kill off every character..." Sorry guys, we may have to save our live-blogging for something else.

Another view after the jump.

Tonight marks the first episode of NBC's Trauma, filmed right here in San Francisco, an hour-long drama about paramedics and explosions. Oh, and Jennifer Siebel Newsom will, we think, be in this episode.

Everyone's soon-to-be favorite, Bay-Area-based NBC drama featuring a helicopter-trauma-unit is looking for extras! [Ed. Note: Your SFist Editors will be LIVE-BLOGGING the Trauma premiere this coming Monday evening, because yes, we are that dorky.] Yes, that's right, you too could get bloodied up in some crazy, action-packed, group scene like the one they shot at Duboce Park, or the one they shot at the Embarcadero market. Particularly swell for the unemployed who always wondered who had time to go be a random extra on a TV show, we recommend this job to anyone who doesn't mind waking up early and standing around a lot. Check out Beau Bonneau Casting for more info.

San Francisco -- being like that pretty girl who sits by herself in the lunchroom and doesn't get a ton of attention outside her AP classes -- gets excited when she's given a chance to shine in the prime time limelight. But NBC's Trauma which premieres in two weeks and which we've all watched in the making here in SF all summer long, may not be long for this world. SF Citizen points us to this blurb by a NY Daily News critic who's had a sneak peak at the show and writes it off saying "we've all seen this before." There's also this poll on HubDub in which people have placed Trauma second only to Accidentally on Purpose as being one of the first new shows likely to get canceled this season. (SF Citizen also points to the irony of our city being one of the only ones without a hospital helipad or medical helicopter trauma unit largely due to the efforts of these rich NIMBYs.)

      

NBC's somewhat anticipated fall drama series "Trauma" filmed a presumably nail-biting scene in Duboce Park yesterday, one that involved a helicopter landing (!) and Halloween decorations (!!).

In lieu of posting the actual question -- we've received several written and oral inquires regarding the matter -- we'll just go ahead and ask: are there any Mad Men viewing parties happening on Sunday night? We want to know. So does Yelp. So does... anybody who enjoys magnificent TV.

A new piece by Lauren Smiley in SF Weekly chronicles the demise/transitioning of our local public access TV org, Access SF. The upshot is that Comcast doesn't cover operating expenses anymore, and the City can only pony up a fraction of what the station has been used to running on, providing us with such programs as "If the Christ Returned Today" (tonight at 7 p.m.), "Atheist Viewpoint," (today at 12:30 p.m.), "Tranny Talk TV," "Ace in Your Face," and our favorite nudist 9/11 conspiracy discussion group, "My Naked Truth." The producers of many of these shows are, shall we say, of a generation for whom YouTube is still a confusing and frightening world of flashes and buttons. They are currently in a bit of an uproar over a proposal by the kids at BAVC (Bay Area Video Coalition) to take over and run the city's two public access channels on a YouTube/Current TV model, in which everyone shoots and edits their shit on their own equipment, uploads it to a site, and a minimal staff keeps the channel schedules rolling.

       

NBC's gripping drama Trauma did a little bit of filming at One Bush this morning. While there were no choice star-sighting on the wattage level of SF First Lady Jennifer Siebel -- remember: let Jennifer be Jennifer, you Hollywood bastards -- it was still quite the scene for little ol' downtown San Francisco.

There is less than a day (t-minus 19 hours as of this posting) to vote for a number of San Francisco-based drag queens in the first round of web casting for the second season of Rupaul's Drag Race on Logo. If you missed the first season this past winter or its subsequent re-running on VH1, you missed some pretty good gay television -- of which there is sorrowfully little, if you don't count America's Next Top Model. The is kind of a cross between Top Model and Project Runway, with some lip sync and wigs thrown in, and Ru even gets filmed in the same soft, glowing light as Tyra at the judges' table.

After more than 60 years of broadcasting in analog, television stations across the nation made the switch to digital today -- following on an Obama-mandated six-month delay so that more outreach could be done for people likely to be most affected, namely the elderly and rural poor. But interestingly, Ryan Kim who writes for the Chron's Technology Chronicles, will also be affected because he decided recently to go cable-less. This seems ironic given the fact that the Tech Chronicles' tagline is "News and views from the digital frontier" (emphasis ours). Ryan apparently has some trouble seeing NBC from where he lives in the Inner Sunset, and must concentrate his technology coverage on the digital frontiers outside of the TV sphere -- also, he appears excited by the idea of getting digital TV streamed on his mobile phone via Qualcomm's FLO TV. Why not have it on a ful screen, Ryan?

Over 3 million people, and an estimated 600,000 Bay Area residents, aren't prepared for today's analog assassination. See, digital TV will reign supreme at midnight tonight. And unless you want to end up as one of those pretentious types who claim to use their television sets strictly for rental videos -- you know, the talent-free trustifarian kind who prefer the East Bay; frequent awful venues like 21 Grand; laugh a little to hard at Shakespearean comedies; read books? You do not want that to happen to you -- you antenna types will need to a) get yourself a expensive digital TV, b) get cable, or c) get a converter box so that you can watch Intervention, the best show on TV right now. To get a coupon for a digital converter, go here. Go here for more information. Or call 1-877-DTV-4YOU (1-877-388-4968) when your TV goes a midnight.

Starved as San Franciscans are for an occasional touch of Hollywood magic, crowds gathered--actual people, actually gathered--to see some pyrotechnics on I-280 yesterday which capped off a few weeks of shooting for the pilot for NBC's "Trauma." The Chron wrote an entire article about it and posted some soon-to-be viral video of the excitement! See the complete (and completely boring explosion) after the jump.

   

San Francisco First Lady Jennifer Siebel on the set right now at Laguna Honda hospital portraying "mildly-injured but unsullied car crash vixen" for the NBC pilot Trauma. The show will be directed by executive produced Jeffrey Reiner (NBC's Friday Night Lights).

KRON 4's parent company, Young Broadcasting, (finally) filed for bankruptcy today, according to sources. KRON, once the Bay Area's NBC affiliate, has been for sale since last year. Most recently, Young Broadcasting Inc., skipped out on a $6.125 million interest payment to lenders. Back in November of 2008, Young made public that "it had been unable to sell KRON and might have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection." Looks like that day has finally come for the beleaguered San Francisco station. KRON bills itself as "the Bay Area's news station," featuring original programming and syndicated shows (like Dr. Phil and Sex and the City reruns). We'll update as soon as we know more.

Remember the other day, we told you about a bunch of new TV ads about how gay families can actually be pleasant and likable? Well, you'll be glad to hear that the spots aired all over California during Tuesday's inauguration, which is great -- except in Los Angeles on ABC-TV. According to the folks who produced the ads, they were told they were "too controversial to air during the Inauguration, since 'many families will be watching.'"

With this week's slew of court filings, the post-Prop-8 fight for civil equality is still hot hot hot. And even though some of the 15-minutes-of-fame organizers may be losing focus, the pros aren't waiting for another election to reach out to voters.

We're back from our little holiday hiatus. Did you miss us? (Don't answer that.) Luckily, "Top Chef" has been on hiatus too. So try to remember back two weeks when that last new episode aired...

Reason for today's 275 Battery shutdown and bomb scare? Yep, "The Price is Right" is at fault. Naturally. As SFist commenter Jackd tells SFist:

Are you an "outgoing, intriguing, competitive" person who is "up for anything and everything?" Also, are you an asshole? Yes? Then head over to Sugar Cafe (679 Sutter) this Saturday night from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. to tryout for a spot as one of the hamsters in CBS's phenomenal reality show, .

Local-TV Tivo alert! We've got some exciting news about everyone's favorite concerned local investigative reporter, Dan "My Rumpled Tie Says No But My Piercing Gaze Says Yes" Noyes.

The hilarious Eugene Mirman and Jon Benjamin are hosting SF Sketchfest's "Fresh Faces of Comedy" show on Sunday night at Mezzanine that we can't wait to check out. There will also be a short film contest with Jon Lehr of TBS's 10 Items or Less (he was also Geico's Caveman, whom he looks nothing like, BTW), which had us chuckling aloud the other night. "Five finalists will have their grocery-store themed films showcased and the winner, as determined by the SF Sketchfest founders and Sony Television executives, will receive a cash prize."

-- Belle de jour (1967): Watch Catherine Deneuve turn into a whore while you, in turn, help to support some. A discussion will follow Luis Buñuel's housewife-cum-prostitute classic, and participants will receive gifts of sex toys. (Tee hee.) All of tonight's proceeds will go to support St. James Infirmary, a health and occupational injury clinic for sex workers. Screens tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Artists' Television Access; donation of $5-20.

Omigod people! A genuine Christmas miracle happened on the latest "Project Runway"!? Didja see it? Wasn't it awesome? Let's discuss.

Sorry for the day late post, but it was a hectic weekend, and we just couldn't bear having to recount the tragedy that was this week's "Project Runway" without at least one good night's sleep behind us.

Degrassi: The Next Generation is known for it accurate, yet sometimes vanilla portrayal of North American teenage life. Topics such as date rape, teen pregnancy, school violence, and inevitable cocaine abuse by wayward rockers are all fair game on this Canadian after-school-special-like teenage sitcom.

Previously on "Project Runway" the models were forced to kowtow to the fashion whims of a celebrity. Thank god THAT'S over with!

Thank God. Really, thank you, God. Since it's next to impossible to remove producer and star Tyra Banks from America's Next Top Model -- we understand the difficulty in smiting a soul that clearly sprang forth from ninth circle of hell -- at least you have the mercy to replace the sweetly boring Twiggy with the exotic and more straight-heterosexual-male-friendly Paulina Porizkova.(Yay!) Now that the show has been reduced from a grotesque display of jarring anorexia to that of an inane, feel-good beauty pageant, we hope this move makes a dent in the direction that this show has taken. (Models going green? A cigarette-free Top Model house? Just vile.)