Girl Power TV

I have always loved watching Amy Smart. She has this girl next door/America’s sweetheart quality to her. Jenna Elfman, on the other hand, is someone who is so comfortable with comedy, it’s fun watching her.

Now, these two women are set to star in their own series slated to unveil this coming fall season.

Amy Smart has been tapped to play Cate on See Cate Run, a drama series about a young and intelligent attorney who will soon try and run as the future female President of the United States. Her show will be running on ABC.

Jenna Elfman is going to star in another comedy series, Accidentally on Purpose, about a woman who becomes pregnant after  a fling and goes to make for herself a very unconventional family. Accidentally will be seen on CBS.

I believe these two programs will be on my watchlist next.

Former Gilmore Girl star, Lauren Graham, is returning on television via this new comedy series which ABC has approved yesterday. The comedy series entitled, Let It Go, is a single camera comedy about a woman who is famous as a self-help guru, but goes through one hell of a coping period when she was unfortunately dumped by the man she loves.

The show will be written by Alex Herschlag whose had served several years as writer for Will and Grace.

Lauren Graham will serve as producer of the series. Her last TV show, Gilmore Girls, was canceled in 2007. But nevertheless, it had quite a cult following among women, consequently putting Graham as one of the more well-loved TV actress in this decade.

ABC has just green lighted two drama series with female characters in the main lead.

The first series, called Inside The Box, is based on a drama series taking place in a Washington news bureau. It will center on female news producers.

The second series, I, Claudia, may be a play on I, Claudius, but this one is actually a contemporary drama about Claudia McIntire, a young and promising prosecutor who is being groomed to be the future president of the United States.

These shows have been ordered to pilot, which will then have to be tested with an audience to determine if it’s going to pick up with the viewing public.

Drop Dead Diva, a 12 episode show which stars Brooke Elliott, has been picked up by Lifetime for a summer season run this year. It was originally intended to air on Fox.

The series, created by Josh Berman in support by Sony Pictures TV is about a vapid and beautiful model aspirant who dies in a car accident. In a twist, her body becomes reincarnated to that of Jane Bingum (Brooke Elliott), a smart lawyer who is kinda of overweight.

Lifetime is thrilled to have this one calling the show touching, funny and clever. Lifetime’s VP says —-

“It’s the type of show that truly enhances the Lifetime brand — the duality of emotionally compelling drama with an equal balance of humor,”

Brooke Elliot is a theater veteran who has appeared in stage presentations such as “The Pirate Queen,” “Wicked” and “Taboo.”

She is a British born and Oxford School educated actress who has appeared on a few BBC mini-series. And David E. Kelley may soon make her a household name across American TV, as he has picked  Charity Wakefield to star in this new legal drama series he is making for NBC.

The show is called Legally Mad and Wakefield will play a lawyer who inherits her father’s practice. Her character is described as “easygoing, deadpan funny and disarms with charm.”

The series will also star Jon Seda and Kristin Chenoweth. Filming hasn’t been reported to have started yet, but of the up and coming shows slated for next season, Legally Mad is getting a lot of buzz this early.

I have so much anticipation for this show, in fact.

It looks like a good idea on power. It sounds like it could actually work. But the more I think about it, the more I’m inclined to say — this is going to end up being a silly production.

I’m talking about Fox’s plan to make this new comedy-drama called, Bitches. It’s about four women living in New York City. Now, before you can say, “Sex and The City copycat!” these women are nothing like Carrie, Sam, Miranda and Charlotte. The women on Bitches are actual werewolves!!! They transform from lovely women to dangerous beasts during certain times of the month and you probably know when that is.

And yes…you can laugh now.

Whatever is up with this network executives? I don’t know. But does this seem like a good idea to you, or did someone had too much tequila at the office Christmas party before going to the boardroom to pitch this?

Here is the full news story from THR :

Talk about a hairy “Sex and the City.”

The Fox network is developing “Bitches,” a dramedy about a quartet of female friends in New York who are werewolves.

The project, which has received a script plus penalty commitment from the network, hails from feature writer Michael Dougherty and Warner Bros. TV.

TV writing duo Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts have come on board to supervise Dougherty. The two also will serve as executive producers alongside Dougherty if the project, described as a quirky urban fairy tale, goes to series.

“Bitches” continues the werewolf theme from Dougherty’s recent horror flick “Trick ‘r Treat.”

2009 is shaping up to be a big year for werewolves with the release of the Benicio del Toro-starring remake of “The Wolfman” and the “Twilight” sequel “New Moon.”

WMA-repped Dougherty’s writing credits also include “Superman Returns” and “X2: X-Men United.”

Berg and Harberts recently served as co-exec producers on the ABC/WBTV series “Pushing Daisies.” The duo, repped by ICM and attorney Gretchen Bruggeman Rush, also created/exec produced the WB’s “Pepper Dennis.”

I have yet to watch an episode of True Blood but I am hearing a lot of raves for it, particularly for its lead female star, Anna Paquin, who has been earning TV acting nominations left and right for the show.

If you remember, this actress, now 26 years old, had won her Oscar trophy at age 11 for The Piano back in 1993. She’s giving the rest of the TV actress nominees a real competition.

Anna Paquin has done movies all her career, until now.

True Blood, from HBO, is a dark, weird and very sexy series about vampires living with humans. It is set in Louisiana. Anna plays Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress who forms a bond with the vampires. The series is based on a novel by Charlaine Harris and it is produced by Alan Ball.

In the series, Anna Paquin is quite the bold one (and sometimes, in the literal sense…I’m told she’s been showing a lot of her breasts in it). What made her decide to do this series — which has just ended it’s successful first season run and will have the next season in May — is her great admiration for Alan Ball. The two have worked together in an HBO movie.

In an interview, Anna said this on why she’s chosen to do TV:

You get to actually develop the characters past an hour and a half. You get episode after episode of really interesting writing that makes you go to more and more complex places and you really get deep into a part—ugh, that’s a vampire pun; that’s terrible. But I really liked the idea of focusing on one thing for, hopefully, a long time to come. I also like the idea of a consistent lifestyle, as opposed to not really knowing where on the planet you’re going to be at any given moment.

Goodluck to her at the awards.

Source: AnnaPaquinFan.Org

You know what? I’m so behind Gilmore Girls since I have several more seasons to finish watching. But what little I saw of this show has made me like Lauren Graham. She’s a wonderful actress who needs to get back on TV again.

And well, it looks like she is going back to TV! According to Variety, the actress will soon be doing a new comedy show for ABC. It’s still an untitled project but there is already a story background.

Lauren Graham will play a self-help guru for women, who can’t seem to follow her own advice after her own boyfriend leaves her.

The new show will be a half-hour program which the actress will co-produce. It will also have Alex Herschlag, a writer from Will and Grace, as part of the whole development process. Mitch Hurwitz, creator of Arrested Developmen, will also executive produce this.

This show may be scheduled for 2009-2010 season.

Dollhouse hasn’t even premiered on television but it seems the show is doomed to fail. Aside from production problems which plagued it last Fall, early reviews of it by critics aren’t favorable.

For a promising series penned by the brilliant Joss Whedon, Dollhouse did not win over this Time Magazine critic who says :

If it weren’t for Whedon’s pedigree, I’m not sure I’d be dying to see a second episode. But for me, the main draw now is not seeing Dushku become a different person every week, but getting to see Joss Whedon become a different writer every week.

Worse, Fox has scheduled the show on a Friday night time slot. In the business, Friday nights isn’t exactly where TV executives put a show they are hoping will stick around for longterm.

Will all these bad press turn around as soon as the show begins in February? Are you anticipating Dollhouse?

This news article from this site made my day. I had the biggest laugh! Amusing concept… and yet strangely, awfully shallow.

Adding yet more reality to the airwaves, ABC’s new series True Beauty will premiere on Monday, January 5.

Executive produced by the beautiful Tyra Banks and Ashton Kutcher, the show will feature 10 beautiful people living together in a beautiful mansion in Los Angeles, who will be given challenges to determine who is truly…well, the most beautiful.

It has stupid, superficial disaster written all over it. But I’ve got to admit I’m going to check this show when it comes out because of sheer curiosity.

Vanessa Minillo has been picked to host the show, True Beauty. A reality TV contest where 10 women are housed together thinking their competing in a beauty pageant, only to be told later that they will be judged based on inner beauty.

The judges will be composed of Cheryl Tiegs and Nole Marin as well as people from America’s Top Model.

One of the prizes include a spread on People’s 100 Most Beautiful People.

So, what do you think of this one?