television – News Stories About television - Page 52

Oct 30, 2008 3:34 PM CDT

TiVo Brings Netflix to a TV Near You

Companies finally join forces to offer streaming video

(Newser) - Starting in December, TiVo owners will be able to watch Netflix movies and TV episodes on their televisions, Ars Technica reports. Consumers will need to own a compatible TiVo device and subscribe to both services to get access to over 12,000 movies and shows. The companies first discussed a...

Estelle Reiner Dead at 94

OBITUARY

Oct 30, 2008 1:22 PM CDT

Estelle Reiner Dead at 94

'I’ll have what she’s having,' clan matriarch said after famous When Harry Met Sally scene

(Newser) - Estelle Reiner, wife of actor Carl Reiner and mother to actor/director Rob Reiner, died Saturday at her home in Beverly Hills at 94, the New York Times reports. Estelle is perhaps best known for her cameo in Rob’s 1989 film When Harry Met Sally, where, following Meg Ryan’s...

West Wing Writers
Get Election Déjà Vu

Oct 30, 2008 6:14 AM CDT

West Wing Writers Get Election Déjà Vu

Politics imitates fiction imitating politics in closing days of the 2008 race

(Newser) - A minority Democratic candidate battling an older Republican maverick in an election overshadowed by national crisis sounds pretty familiar to the makers of The West Wing—who wrote that script 4 years ago. As the 2008 race enters the home stretch, the parallels between it and The West Wing's final...

First Laser TV Hits the Market

Oct 29, 2008 5:25 PM CDT

First Laser TV Hits the Market

LaserVue promises more colors, needs less electricity

(Newser) - Mitsubishi has released the world’s first laser television, TechRadar reports. The LaserVue L65-A90 uses DLP technology, which runs most projectors, to deliver colors twice as rich as an HDTV. The LaserVue is also greener than HD, using a quarter of the power of a plasma TV. But it will...

Swayze: I Catch 'Myself With
a Smile on
My Face'

Oct 29, 2008 12:10 PM CDT

Swayze: I Catch 'Myself With a Smile on My Face'

Cancer-stricken actor is working, 'proud' of it

(Newser) - Patrick Swayze is healthy, working, and excited by the future, the New York Times reports. The actor, who is responding well to treatment for pancreatic cancer, is shooting a cop drama for A&E, The Beast. “I do find myself, at the end of the day, riding home sort...

Fox Vetoes World Series
Day Game

Oct 29, 2008 12:00 PM CDT

Fox Vetoes World Series Day Game

Prefers prime time start

(Newser) - With all the late starts and later finishes plaguing the World Series, many are pining for an old-fashioned day game—including Bud Selig. The commish says he’d love to schedule an afternoon contest, if only Fox would let him. But the network insists on starting in prime time, when...

Hannity, Olbermann:
On Different Planets

OPINION

Oct 27, 2008 12:29 PM CDT

Hannity, Olbermann: On Different Planets

(Newser) - Barack Obama has suggested voters are “seeing two different realities, a Sean Hannity reality and a Keith Olbermann reality”—and he’s right, Howard Kurtz writes in the Washington Post. "Adored by fans and derided by critics," Fox's Hannity is an unapologetic John McCain booster, while...

How Jim Popped the Question

Oct 26, 2008 7:12 PM CDT

How Jim Popped the Question

Long-awaited Office proposal cost big bucks and required huge rain machines

(Newser) - Jim’s proposal to Pam at a gas station rest stop may have looked spur-of-the-moment, but a top creative on The Office says it took weeks of planning and high-tech special effects. To create the 52-second scene, the production team built a replica of a rest stop on Merritt Parkway...

How to Make
Heroes
Super Again

opinion

Oct 24, 2008 8:36 PM CDT

How to Make Heroes Super Again

(Newser) - The "zeitgeist-tapping, blockbuster event" that was Heroes has fallen in both ratings and creative zeal, Jeff Jensen writes in Entertainment Weekly. Here's his five-point plan to fix it:

Hang up some tights: Telepathic policeman Matt Parkman, last seen wandering the African desert, must go. So too Suresh

...

90210 & Co. Get Full Ride as YouTube Ends 10-Minute Rule

Oct 24, 2008 4:16 PM CDT

90210 & Co. Get Full Ride as YouTube Ends 10-Minute Rule

Site starts showing full-length TV episodes, films

(Newser) - YouTube is abandoning its 10-minute video limit to show movies and full-length TV episodes, starting with Star Trek, MacGyver, and Beverly Hills, 90210. The Google-owned juggernaut is responding to competition from Hulu and other sites, reports USA Today. It’s also adding “pre-roll” advertisements that play before a video...

TV Execs Like Palin's Future

Oct 24, 2008 11:55 AM CDT

TV Execs Like Palin's Future

Talk show, news commentator, even reality program among possible post-politics offers

(Newser) - Even if she doesn't end up in Washington, Sarah Palin could still find a presence in the lower 48, the Hollywood Reporter notes. Media higher-ups, salivating at the thought of ratings bumps that Palin appearances gave Saturday Night Live and CBS News, would love to offer her a backup career—...

Feud Cuts LiLo's
Betty Stand Short

Oct 23, 2008 4:00 PM CDT

Feud Cuts LiLo's Betty Stand Short

Mean-girl antics between Lohan, star Ferrara trim 6-episode arc to 4

(Newser) - Lindsay Lohan’s stand on ABC’s Ugly Betty has been reduced from six episodes to four, and a breakdown in relations with star America Ferrera is the cause, the New York Post reports. Insiders said Lohan—signed to play a high-school rival—wouldn’t emerge from her (trashed) dressing...

Curb Cranks Up for New Season

Oct 23, 2008 12:12 PM CDT

Curb Cranks Up for New Season

HBO plans 10 episodes of the Emmy-nominated sitcom in 2009

(Newser) - Curb Your Enthusiasm, the longest-running show in HBO’s lineup, is returning for a seventh season next year, Variety reports. Ten episodes of the half-hour sitcom are set to begin production in December, a source says; the executive producers and air dates are still under wraps. The show, created by...

Tube 2, Boobs 0 in Weekend Sports Viewing Snafus

Oct 20, 2008 2:38 PM CDT

Tube 2, Boobs 0 in Weekend Sports Viewing Snafus

Technical issues keep baseball playoff, NFL game off air long enough to drive fans nuts

(Newser) - Power problems had fans hoping to catch the baseball playoffs and the NFL on TV this weekend howling, the AP reports, with a malfunction at TBS headquarters keeping the first 20 minutes of Tampa Bay’s Game 6 loss to visiting Boston off the airwaves Saturday. Yesterday, balloons snagged a...

Drenched in Watercooler Moments, SNL Is Hot Again

Oct 18, 2008 5:00 PM CDT

Drenched in Watercooler Moments, SNL Is Hot Again

Late-night is the standout hit of the fall season

(Newser) - The fall TV ratings are in, and while Heroes needs saving and House is collapsing, Saturday Night Live has emerged as the biggest hit of the season, Maureen Ryan writes in the Chicago Tribune. Unlike other shows, SNL’s live ratings have jumped nearly 50% in its 34th season. “...

TV Makes Us Dream in Color

Oct 18, 2008 5:50 AM CDT

TV Makes Us Dream in Color

Research suggest childhood TV-watching affects whether dreams are in color or not

(Newser) - The advent of color TV may have injected color into generations of dreams, the Daily Telegraph reports. A study finds that people who grew up watching black-and-white TV often dream in monochrome—as people are believed to have done before the dawn of television—while those who grew up with...

Dave's 10 Best Digs at McCain

OPINION

Oct 17, 2008 12:25 PM CDT

Dave's 10 Best Digs at McCain

Truce between GOP candidate and late-night host can't erase these swipes

(Newser) - David Letterman has landed some pretty harsh zingers aimed since John McCain skipped out on the Late Show in September. Los Angeles Times reporter Matea Gold put together a Top 10 list of her own; a sampling:

"I gave up drinking a while ago, but I started again. And

...

Obama Ad to Delay
World Series Game

Oct 16, 2008 1:33 PM CDT

Obama Ad to Delay World Series Game

If there is a Game 6, MLB agrees to push start back 18 minutes so Fox can air spot

(Newser) - The GOP is crying foul after Fox announced it would delay a possible World Series Game 6 to air a 30-minute Barack Obama spot, CNN reports. Obama has bought airtime from Fox, CBS, and NBC for Oct. 29. “Not only is Obama putting politics before principle, he’s putting...

Chocolate News Could
Fill Chappelle Void

TV REVIEW

Oct 15, 2008 3:42 PM CDT

Chocolate News Could Fill Chappelle Void

Grier counters Comedy Central's 'vanilla' news satires

(Newser) - Comedy Central may have found a Dave Chappelle-worthy replacement in David Alan Grier, Paul Farhi writes in the Washington Post. His Chocolate News is a “wholly inappropriate—and riotiously funny” 60 Minutes-style program in which Grier offers the news in “Lou Dobbsean rant” and mocks such figures as...

Family Guy Has Worn Thin

OPINION

Oct 14, 2008 6:45 PM CDT

Family Guy Has Worn Thin

(Newser) - Family Guy is back and bigger than ever, and creator Seth Macfarlane is rolling in money, influence, and spinoffs. Sounds like just the right time for a major backlash, Natasha Vargas-Cooper writes for Radar. “Just a few years after thousands of American tastemakers demanded Family Guy be resuscitated from...