Archive: Summer TV Press Tour 2006
Meet Vittorio
At PBS's party, the last of Summer TV Press Tour 2006, critics sat happily in the back of the ballroom, munching on tomato-and-mozzarella salads while watching the upper crust of PBS and party-presenting WNET/New York hobnobbing at the Big People's Table. PBS always has a stage show at its party;...
By Lisa de Moraes | July 27, 2006; 02:33 PM ET | Comments (10)
Fox Party: Hagman's Kiwis
Enormous fans and cans of spray water have been spread around the garden of the Ritz Carlton Huntington hotel in Pasadena to beat the heat at Fox's Summer TV Press Tour 2006 party. Critics mill about rows of white tents, chatting up producers, network suits, and celebrities with their entourages....
By Lisa de Moraes | July 26, 2006; 08:15 AM ET | Comments (0)
Marriage Advice
Brad Garrett showed up at Summer TV Press Tour 2006 to promote his new Fox sitcom "Til Death" in which he plays a high school history teacher, married nearly 9,000 days to Joy (Joely Fisher), who's getting to know his treacly newlywed neighbors Steph (Kat Foster) and Jeff (Eddie Kaye...
By Lisa de Moraes | July 25, 2006; 09:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Trophy Time
Mary Lynn Rajskub, who plays brainiac Chloe on Fox series "24" was the kickoff entertainment at the Television Critics Association's trophy show. Male critics in the room loved her; female critics -- not so much. Rajskub started by noting how hot it was outside; the Los Angeles area has experienced...
By Lisa de Moraes | July 24, 2006; 08:22 AM ET | Comments (0)
Icon as a Dirty Word
Every season there's a troubled show. The show that is announced for a network's prime-time schedule but never actually debuts; or it debuts but gets yanked immediately. Critics know to look for the red flags. This season they've zeroed in on ABC's new "Brothers and Sisters," starring a large ensemble...
By Lisa de Moraes | July 20, 2006; 02:06 AM ET | Comments (9)
Press Tour Serialized Drama
Note to cast and producers of the many new serialized dramas who plan to participate in Q&A sessions at Summer TV Press Tour 2006: Critics are going to ask how you plan to get viewers to commit to your show, given how many serialized dramas are already on the air,...
By Lisa de Moraes | July 19, 2006; 08:36 AM ET | Comments (0)
Free to Be Cynical
TV critics attending the new CW network's Summer TV Press Tour 2006 party, in the garden of the Ritz Carlton Huntington hotel in Pasadena, jammed a so-called CW Lounge area, in which hostesses were printing T- shirts with the network's Free to Be [fill in the word] marketing campaign. They...
By Lisa de Moraes | July 18, 2006; 02:02 AM ET | Comments (0)
Color-Blind Casting
"Friends" exec producer David Crane came to Summer TV Press Tour 2006 over the weekend to promote his next all-white ensemble sitcom about a bunch of people living in an urban East Coast setting - this time Philly. It's called "The Class," it's for CBS, and it's about a group...
By Maura McCarthy | July 17, 2006; 11:02 AM ET | Comments (0)
Red Carpet
A Goodyear blimp hovers over the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, welcoming critics to the CBS Summer TV Press Tour Punt, Pass, and Kick party. Another sports-themed CBS party -- another opportunity for CBS to serve hotdogs to critics. Photographers are lined up outside the stadium at Gate A, next...
By Lisa de Moraes | July 17, 2006; 08:29 AM ET | Comments (0)
Pity the Fool
Critics didn't seem much like partying on the fourth night of Summer TV Press Tour 2006. Maybe it's because, while they expect to suffer though a certain amount of TV suit blah, blah, blah-ing as the price of the drink and food, this party -- thrown by NBC Universal to...
By Lisa de Moraes | July 14, 2006; 07:48 AM ET | Comments (11)
March of the Penguins
Hallmark Channel -- aka the Celebrities You Thought Might Be Dead But Aren't Channel -- threw Wednesday's Summer TV Press Tour 2006 party, celebrating its recent acquisition of the docu-flick "March of the Penguins." Anyone who is no longer anyone is there: Shirley Jones, Naomi Judd, John Boy Walton, Dick...
By Lisa de Moraes | July 13, 2006; 08:34 AM ET | Comments (12)
Mini-Spa Night
After an emotionally exhausting afternoon listening to former TV news titan Dan Rather blubber on about Edward R. Murrow, wrung out TV critics retired to the pool at the Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena to restore their tissues and fluff up their collagen at a mini-spa party hosted by...
By Lisa de Moraes | July 12, 2006; 08:31 AM ET | Comments (13)
Hanging with the D-list
Summer TV Press Tour 2006 kicked off today in Pasadena very short on star wattage. Tom Skerritt was a no-show; ditto Hunter Thompson's widow. Joan Rivers, who was billed to show up at the TV Guide Channel patio dinner party to plug her upcoming 1,000th trophy-show red carpet interview, stood...
By Lisa de Moraes | July 11, 2006; 08:29 AM ET | Comments (12)
