The So How Did I Do? Post.

Whenever I post what the new shows on FTA US TV are for the upcoming season, I like to guess which ones might come over to the UK. So...

ABC
Copper
What I said: "Not something I'd bet on."
Was I right? So far, yes. (Did ABC even show this?)

Cougar Town
What I said: "Very good. Fiver, Five US, Living and the ilk."
Was I right? Yes; Living bought it.

The Deep End
What I said: "Not out of the question."
Was I right? So far, it is out of the question.

Flash Forward
What I said: "Extremely good."
Was I right? Definitely. Five snapped it up for both regular Five and cable sister FiveUSA.

The Forgotten
What I said: "Detective show, Bruckheimer... I'd say it'll get a home."
Was I right? No.

Happy Town
What I said?: "Not out of the question."
Was I right? It hasn't happened. Yet.

The Middle
What I said: "Doesn't immediately say "Buy me," but Living..."
Was I right? It didn't say "Buy me" at all.

Modern Family
What I said: "This sounds like it'll get a home."
Was I right? Yes - it's a welcome addition to Sky's lineup.

V
What I said: "This WILL come to the UK. Sky and Virgin1 (and possibly ITV's digital channels) are airing their chequebooks as we speak."
Was I right? I was half right - it did come over here, but it's airing on Syfy. I should have taken their slogan to heart and imagined greater.


CBS
Accidentally on Purpose
What I said: "It might happen."
Was I right?: It hasn't.

The Bridge
What I said: "If Flashpoint is any indication, good."
Was I right? No.

The Good Wife
What I said: "Dunno. But never discount the involvement of Ridley and Tony Scott. Or David Zucker."
Was I right? The Scotts, plus Julianna Margulies, may have helped it come to More4 (and Channel 4 late nights).

Miami Medical (formerly Miami Trauma until a name change to avoid confusion with, well, Trauma)
What I said: "High. Medical shows sell well."
Was I right? Not so far...

NCIS: Los Angeles
What I said: "NCIS is a reliable performer for both FX and Five. This'll come over."
Was I right? Yes... but it went to Sky One.


CW
Melrose Place
What I said: "Likely to."
Was I right? Yes - but while E4 (and Channel 4's T4) bagged 90210, the show the EPG calls New Melrose Place went to Five's other digital sister Fiver.

Life UneXpected (formerly Parental Discretion Advised)
What I said: "Not great - it doesn't sound like something they'll be keen on."
Was I right? Unfortunately yes.

The Vampire Diaries
What I said: "I bet it does."
Was I right?: Yep - it's on ITV2.

FOX
The Cleveland Show
What I said: "Very good. FX and BBC3 have done well with both Family Guy and American Dad!"
Was I right? Well...



Glee
What I said: "I sure hope so; this sounds just the thing for me. Or Hallmark. Or Channel 4."
Was I right? Definitely - it's doing great business for E4 and Channel 4.

Human Target
What I said: "Excellent. Even Birds Of Prey made it to UK screens."
Was I right? Yes; it's on Syfy.

Past Life
What I said: "Not massive. But you never know."
Was I right? It hasn't turned up.

Sons of Tucson
What I said: "If it does well for Fox, Sky here it comes."
Was I right? It didn't, so it isn't.


NBC
100 Questions
What I said: "Anything with a UK link seems to get bought, so..."
Was I right? The series hasn't even been screened by NBC yet!

Community
What I said: "Not bad, I'd say."
Was I right? Not yet.

Day One
What I said: "This has Sky One, Virgin 1, BBC2 or Sci-Fi written all over it."
Was I right? So far, not on any of them. Or any other UK broadcaster.

Mercy
What I said: "See Miami Trauma."
Was I right? See Miami Trauma.

Parenthood
What I said: "Hallmark, or More4. Maybe even Channel 4."
Was I right? No sign yet.

Trauma
What I said: "Could well find a home."
Was I right? Yes, it went to Virgin1.

The A Conversation About Soundtracks With A Sane Person Post.

(References to wrestling and Chuck from other participants edited out. Link to Victoria Justice not edited out, obviously.)

InThe313: That ash cloud still there?
Me: Since Stephen Lang from Avatar's in the country, I'd say no.
Damn, that volcano erupted bigger than I expected. What's he doing in the UK?
Promoting the DVD/Blu-Ray release of said movie (selling like hotcakes, needless to say).
Can't blame the buyers.
I'd rather get this, to be honest.
You gotta go deep into the Internet to find that.  
Not that deep; it's a legitimate release.
I thought it was rare and hard to find. 
That was a promo. This is a legit commercial release and long overdue. Especially after NCIS managed to get TWO double-disc albums.
When did this come out?
Literally a few hours ago.
I didn't know that.  
That's understandable; you're not a soundtrack fan (or on Intrada's mailing list for new releases).
JAG or NCIS? (And) you're right, but I know a good one when I hear one.
I've seen more episodes of JAG than NCIS although over here NCIS is the Rhoda to the parent show's Mary Tyler Moore (i.e. has had a more successful FTA run).  
I was too young for JAG when it started and ended, but it was a good show, And Katherine Bell, meow!
It should have come out long ago, but Paramount has been very tight with its releases music-wise until they got a new music head.
But NCIS is smart, adventurous, and funny at times.
(I always preferred Andrea Parker; never understood why she was replaced after the pilot. Maybe she was too sexy for some NBC suits.)
How long has Paramount been looking for a head, eight years?
(Or not, given The Pretender.)
What's The Pretender?
I don't know... I do know that since their new music executive arrived some OSTs have come out fans have been begging for for years - Airplane!, Black Sunday etc.
There was never an Airplane! soundtrack?
NBC series about a guy who can pretend to be anyone he wants to be; ran for four years.
Evil: Victoria Justice on iCarly. 
No, there wasn't. Not at the time (and not legally).
*THUD!* Well somebody call "Weird Al" Yankovic and get him on that project!
Nice and tight. A bit late; the Airplane! CD came out late last year via La-La Land. Already OOP.
Well, damn! What do you think about AC/DC doing the entire Iron Man 2 soundtrack?
(Aside: Why was I not informed until a few minutes ago that Victoria Justice and her hot little body are in the UK?) Not really the entire soundtrack, for two reasons.
Don't look at me, I didn't know. Not the whole thing? I call false advertisement.
1. Angus and co. seem to have basically given us a Greatest Hits collection rather than scoring the thing (a la the Grateful Dead on the '80s Twilight Zone). And 2. There is actually a proper score to the film from Jon Favreau regular John Debney (you can hear clips on the film's site and it's getting a release via Sony Classical, which I find pretty ironic).
What's so ironic about it?
It features rock guitar. On a label with "Classical" in the title. (Apologies to the rest of you for being sidelined, by the way. You now know how I feel when you guys are talking about wrestling or Lost.)
That is what I call irony.

The Scarlett Johansson's Ass Kicks Kick-Ass's Ass Post.

You can try saying that five times fast or you can just look at her. I'd go for option two.

The Oranges Are Still Not The Only Fruit Post.

Barbados is the most easterly of the Caribbean islands, and it's often referred to by a lot of the locals as "Little England." Said locals apparently have a Daily Mail mentality based on the two main newspapers, the Barbados Advocate and the Nation. The latter's running a three-part series about that evil activity, same-sex feelings between girls. 

The second part, about how the subject of the story "reformed" through the Church, is here. Now I do not believe that same-sex love = irredeemably wicked, so this is sad to read (especially given the first article in the series, which you can find on the site - I can't bring myself to link to it); my distaste for this piece is really brought out by a lot of the comments below. It seems that a lot of people haven't noticed that it's not the 19th century any longer - true, you get homophobia all over the planet, but in a country that likes to trumpet itself as being a developed place it's like "WTF?"

If Nicole Hinkson (that's her name) is happy the way she is, then good for her. But you have to feel for those lesbians (and gay men, let us not forget) who still have to hide.

For fuck's sake, grow up.

The Did They Mention The Music? Post.

The TV Academy has put the final nail in the TV theme song coffin, quoth Variety.
Now that the once vibrant slice of pop culture -- who doesn't still know the words to the themes from Gilligan's Island or The Brady Bunch? -- has mostly disappeared from primetime, the Emmy category honoring main title songs is following suit.
The Academy announced Monday that the main title theme category would be eliminated effective next year, and replaced by the new "music composition for a non-fiction program" award.
"This change was made due to the decreasing number of traditional television main title theme music," the org said.
Indeed, TV themes virtually disappeared in the late 1990s, as networks experimented with ways to keep viewers from flipping channels. Just as they squeezed out closing credits, played with start and stop times (like last week's 9:28 p.m. scheduling of Glee) and worked to seamlessly blend from one show to the next, webheads also dramatically reduced opening credit segments -- or got rid of them all together.
The main title theme category ax was one of several rules changes announced by the Academy. But...

...the one with the music is the one under the spotlight here. To be honest, this isn't terribly surprising - increasing contempt for openings aside, the Emmys have had difficulties with theme tunes for a long time (ever since ATAS was founded, in fact) - in the book Inside Star Trek Robert H. Justman and Herbert F. Solow relate how the 1967 Emmys decided that Lalo Schifrin's work on Mission: Impossible wasn't worthy of a statuette (although Schifrin has won an Emmy, it wasn't for this), and indeed they didn't even give awards out for themes until 1993! So in "honour" of this occasion, and as another lament for the time when network TV shows had decent opening and closing tunes (it was not uncommon, for instance, for The A-Team to give Mike Post and Pete Carpenter's theme a lengthy workout, and the next time the pilot for Moonlighting is shown have a look at how the end credits give you a chance to hear the whole song!), all the Emmy-winning themes so far. I only wish The Simpsons or Twin Peaks could have been among the following...

1993: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Dennis McCarthy)



1994: seaQuest DSV (John Debney)



1995: Star Trek: Voyager (Jerry Goldsmith, his fifth and final Emmy)



1996: Murder One (Mike Post, his only Emmy to date - and why this is set to scenes of Gillian Anderson, I don't know)



1997: EZ Streets (Mark Isham - his end title music doesn't seem to be online anywhere, dammit)



1998: Fame L.A. (Robbie Buchanan, Maribeth Derry, Richard Barton Lewis and Tom Snow)



1999: Trinity (Martin Davich - no video available, apparently)

2000: The West Wing (W.G. Snuffy Walden)



2001: Gideon's Crossing (James Newton Howard)



2002: Six Feet Under (Thomas Newman)



2003: Monk (Jeff Beal)



2004: Monk, again (Randy Newman) - yes, this won for both its themes. Amazing.



2005: Desperate Housewives (Danny Elfman)



2006: Masters of Horror (Edward Shearmur)



2007: The Tudors (Trevor Morris)



2008: Pirate Master (Russ Landau)



2009: Great Performances (John Williams)

The V Post.

Maybe it's not fair to judge something based on two episodes, but improved effects aside the new V is pretty weak compared to the two miniseries (and arguably the followup TV series).

That said, Laura "never saw her on Smallville because I never watch the thing" Vandervoort... Holy shit.

The To Complete Or Not To Complete? Post.

While wondering if Brenda "Hang on, let me just get out my soapbox" Hampton has noticed that teen TV shows have moved on significantly since the 1950s (this is in response to The Secret Life Of The American Teenager starting tonight on MTV in the UK. You heard me, MTV. Although that said, at least it's more enticing than, well, all their other shows), on to the subject of this post.

Sequel soundtracks.

And more to the point, owning them.

What brought it up was adding soundtrack info to the Wiki entry for Die Hard With A Vengeance the other day; I've got a CD-R dub of the OOP Varese Sarabande CD Club release of Michael Kamen's score for the first one, which'll be welcome until I can get an actual copy of the album (ha!), and I've got a cassette of Kamen's Die Hard 2. But I don't have the soundtrack for the third film and I haven't got Marco Beltrami's CD for Live Free Or Die Hard yet; I've got all three Howard Shore albums for The Lord of the Rings AND the expanded ones (thanks, Zeta!), and I've got the Jerry Goldsmith Rambo soundtracks (and their expanded ones) and am open to the one from Brian Tyler. But... but I don't know whether or not to get the other two Die Hards.

On the one hand, I'd like to complete the set. On the other hand, in addition to the movie having had a lot of music from Die Hard 2 tracked in (sadly, it's not the only time a sequel's had a predecessor's music put in - see also Rambo III and the two Spider-man sequels), the Die Hard With A Vengeance soundtrack has been complained about for a) leaving off lots of good material (which I can certainly believe based on previous Kamen albums), b) giving up far too much space to rap music and classical covers, and c) not including "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." So... I'm stuck.

Of course, I'll probably get it just to complete the set. Eventually. And now to post this and get back to The Secret Life Of The American Teenager. Thank goodness the girls are cute.

The Cindy Crawford For Deichmann Post.

The RIP Peter Graves Post.

Crap.

The Good! Post.

BERLIN (AFP) – A German man who tried to blackmail Cindy Crawford over a photograph showing the supermodel's young daughter gagged and bound was sentenced Tuesday to two years behind bars.

Edis Kayalar, 26, was found guilty of one count of extortion and two counts of attempted extortion after he demanded more than 100,000 dollars (74,000 euros) from Crawford, a court near the southern German city of Stuttgart ruled.

The shaven-headed Kayalar, wearing a grey shirt and skinny black tie, covered his face with a pink folder to avoid photographers in the court.

The Crawfords' daughter, Kaia, seven years old at the time, told her parents, who were unaware of the image, that her nanny had taken the photograph at the family home in the United States as part of a "Cops and Robbers" game.

Kayalar, a friend of the nanny, took possession of the photo and warned Crawford and her businessman husband Rande Gerber that he would sell the picture to tabloid newspapers unless they paid him.

The couple paid him 1,000 dollars last July and received the photo in return. But two days later, Kayalar allegedly claimed to have a digital copy of the picture and demanded more money.

This time, Crawford, 44, and Gerber, 48, reported the extortion attempt, triggering an FBI investigation in the United States.

Prosecutors say Kayalar, a professional model according to entertainment site TMZ.com, demanded another 5,000 dollars in September but he was deported soon afterwards due to immigration law violations.

He then phoned the couple in November and demanded they transfer 100,000 dollars to his bank account in Germany.

But Kayalar then became worried the money would raise eyebrows with social welfare authorities as he was receiving unemployment benefits and went to Turkey, allegedly to open a separate bank account for the money from Crawford.

When he saw that the case had hit the local newspapers, Kayalar feared arrest in Turkey so he quickly returned to Germany and turned himself in to police.

Crawford, formerly married to Hollywood heart-throb Richard Gere, has been married to Gerber since 1998. They have two children together.