My Latest from TV Guide Magazine

In case you missed it, some of the recent stories I've worked on for TV Guide Magazine over the past month:

Exclusive: Chuck Lorre Unveils Censored Vanity Cards for His New Book
First look at Two and a Half Men exec producer Chuck Lorre's new book, a collection of his famed vanity cards. We posted one of the cards that was censored by CBS. Lorre, who combed through countless vanity cards to choose his favorites for the book, admits he was stunned by some of the ones he hadn't read in years. "I was surprised to see how seemingly open I was to sharing my thoughts and experiences," he says. "I didn't have a good censor at the time, I was just sort of spilling it all out. I probably should have used that time to see a therapist or something."

Exclusive: The Amazing Race Producers Line Up New Reality Project at A&E
Fresh off their ninth Emmy win for outstanding reality competition series, The Amazing Race executive producers Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri have set up what could be their next show, a reality series currently in the works at A&E.

Watch My Show: Last Resort's Shawn Ryan and Karl Gajdusek Answer Our Showrunner Survey
In this age of ambiguous TV heroes, it's clear in ABC's new thriller Last Resort that Submarine Captain Marcus Chaplin (Andre Braugher) and executive officer Sam Kendal (Scott Speedman) — forced into exile after demanding confirmation of orders to fire their weapons — are the good guys. The show's real intrigue comes from trying to figure out who the bad guys are. Co-creators and executive producers Shawn Ryan (The Shield) and Karl Gajdusek (Dead Like Me) answered our showrunner survey to explain why we should book a trip to the Last Resort.

Exclusive: Jimmy Kimmel's Head Writers Give the Backstory to This Year's Emmy Gags
Jimmy Kimmel Live! co-head writers Molly McNearney (who in her spare time is also Kimmel's fiancée) and Gary Greenberg gave us some exclusive tidbits on how this year's Emmy laughs came together, from the opening sketch to Kimmel's Tracy Morgan/Twitter stunt.

Exclusive: Garry Marshall Eyes a Return to TV with Fox Project
Three decades after Garry Marshall dominated TV with the likes of Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy, he's just sold a new TV project to Fox with his son Scott Marshall.

Network Honchos Survey the New TV Season
The next few weeks will be rough for the networks, as they parse what works — and what doesn't — among this year's crop of new shows. We asked the five broadcast network heads, plus a few key cable bosses, to give us their thoughts on what will big on the small screen -- including their picks for sleeper hit, stars to watch, the show they'd love to steal from another network, and more.

Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban Join Mariah Carey and Randy Jackson on American Idol
My take on the long road to finding a new crop of judges for American Idol.

This Year's Emmy Awards Burning Questions
Heading into this year's Emmy awards, some of the races to watch.

Network Q&A: AMC's Charlie Collier on Breaking Bad, Mad Men and His Big Year
AMC is having a moment. Breaking Bad ended the first half of its final season with some of its best ratings ever, while AMC's top-rated The Walking Dead returns on Oct. 14. With so much going on, AMC president Charlie Collier talked to TV Guide Magazine about his network's fortunes.

Exclusive: Community's Donald Glover Develops New Sitcom at NBC
It looks like Donald Glover will be engaging in some extracurricular work outside of Greendale Community College. The Community star, who plays former high school quarterback-turned-air conditioning repair annex recruit Troy Barnes, is developing a new show for NBC with 30 Rock co-executive producer Matt Hubbard.

Watch My Show: Guys With Kids' Jimmy Fallon and Charlie Grandy Answer Our Showrunner Survey
For his leap into primetime as an executive producer, late night host Jimmy Fallon partnered up with his former Saturday Night Live colleague Charlie Grandy (as well as Amy Ozols) to create the new NBC sitcom Guys With Kids. Fallon and Grandy explain why these Guys are dolls.

Exclusive: Producer Change at the Top of Fox’s Ben and Kate
Fox's new comedy Ben and Kate, which is already earning early positive buzz from critics, will move forward without two of its executive producers. Garrett Donovan and Neil Goldman, who joined the comedy in May as showrunners, have departed to focus on their own series development.

Exclusive: Animal Planet Renews Call of the Wildman for Season 2
Yi yi yi, Animal Planet's "Turtleman" has just snapped up a second season renewal. The network ordered 20 more half-hour episodes of its new hit series Call of the Wildman for air in 2013.

Fox Lands New Comedy From Bill Lawrence and Creator of $#*! My Dad Says
Cougar Town creator Bill Lawrence is partnering with Justin Halpern — the writer who turned his Twitter feed into the short-lived CBS sitcom $#*! My Dad Says — to develop a new comedy at Fox.

Man of the Year: Jimmy Kimmel on the Emmys, Oprah and Going Head-to-Head With Leno and Letterman
My big Jimmy Kimmel cover story: It's hard to believe that Kimmel has much time to sit down anyway — or eat or sleep, for that matter. The ABC late-night host is in the middle of the biggest year of his show, and, quite possibly, his life. So far in 2012, Kimmel has made nice (and become pals!) with Oprah Winfrey; hosted the White House Correspondents Dinner to great reviews (including high marks from the president); was tapped to host the 64th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards; subsequently scored the show's first-ever Emmy nomination for variety series; and even got engaged to girlfriend Molly McNearney, the show's co-head writer, while on vacation in South Africa. "And," he quips, "I'm pregnant."

How Primetime Is Getting A Little Bit Country
Analysis: Nashville, the city, and Nashville, the country music industry, are expecting big things from Nashville, the new fall drama from ABC. The serialized drama, which stars Connie Britton as an country singer juggling her home life and struggling to remain a relevant artist, might not have made it on the air a few years ago. But just as country music is moving toward the mainstream, the mainstream is gravitating toward country music — and TV execs, hungry for audiences, are eager to tap into country's loyal fan base.

MTV Explains Why The Situation and His Jersey Shore Pals Had to Go
G-T-Later! Jersey Shore is still a ratings smash, even though audience levels have dipped from its 2011 high. But MTV programming executive vice president Chris Linn tells TV Guide Magazine that it was time for the show to retire anyway.

Robin Williams Looking to Return to TV, Teams With David E. Kelley For Comedy
Shazbot! Robin Williams could be making a return to TV, where he famously got his start 30 years ago as the lovable alien from Ork on Mork & Mindy. The actor is in talks to team up with writer David E. Kelley to develop The Crazy Ones, a comedy about an aging but brilliant advertising exec.

The Inside Story on How NBC Landed Michael J. Fox
Backstory: It's back to the future for the sitcom king, who once again feels up to the task — and is returning to TV in a big way. NBC, where Fox became a superstar in the 1980s as young conservative icon Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties, has given a rare 22-episode guarantee (before a lick of film is even shot) to a new sitcom based on Fox's life.

Watch My Show: Up To Speed's Richard Linklater and Speed Levitch Answer Our Showrunner Survey
For his first foray into episodic TV, director Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, School of Rock) has partnered with a true original: Eccentric tour guide and historian Timothy "Speed" Levitch. Their new Hulu series Up to Speed is an unconventional travel show that follows Levitch as he explores unusual attractions across America — such as the "luckiest subway grate" in New York and the "shoe gardens" of San Francisco.

Watch My Show: Gravity Falls' Alex Hirsch Answers Our Showrunner Survey
It's The X-Files meets Twin Peaks — but animated, and for kids. Disney Channel's Gravity Falls may be unlike any other cartoon out there. Jason Ritter and Kristen Schaal play Dipper and Mabel Pines, siblings who are forced to spend the summer with their eccentric great-uncle in a town where very weird things happen. Creator Alex Hirsch says he conceives each episode like a "little movie," as the show explores its versions of urban legends. We asked him to scare up some reasons why we should investigate Gravity Falls.

Summer Movie Blockbusters Still Rule on Cable
Analysis: FX is known mostly for its original series, from Sons of Anarchy and Justified to Louie and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. But as much as 80 percent of the cable network's schedule is still devoted to theatrical movies — which is why FX execs have been on a blockbuster buying spree again this summer.

My Latest from TV Guide Magazine

In case you missed it, some of the recent stories I've worked on for TV Guide Magazine over the past month: Who Earns What: TV's Highest Paid Stars
I helped Steve Battaglio on this one. Networks and studios have continued to take a hard line on holding down salaries, based on TV Guide Magazine's annual survey drawn from conversations with agents, network executives and studio heads. Rare is the lead actor who can enter a new series earning more than $125,000 an episode. The exceptions are those with a ratings track rec­ord of having a major hit show (Matthew Perry) or a significant career in feature films (Kevin Bacon).

How TV Veterans Conquered the Summer Movies
TV fans might have noticed some familiar names at the box office this summer. Now that it's widely accepted that some of Hollywood's best work is found on the small screen, television's top creative minds are finding a receptive audience in the film world as well.

Strike Back Gets Back in Action!
The Strike Back team had just arrived in Mozambique to kick off shooting this season when they ran into a major problem: As the country faced an uprising by thousands of freedom fighters clutching real RPGs and AK-47s, the government wasn't so sure what to make of the show's crew.

NBC's The Voice Reveals Its Twist For Fall — And It's A "Knockout"
NBC's The Voice is probably best known for its blind auditions — and, of course, its big, red spinning chairs, which helped turn the singing competition into a ratings phenomenon. But NBC also realized last year that once the chairs stop spinning, viewer interest in The Voice starts to dip. Meeting with reporters at his lavish beachside home, executive producer Mark Burnett (sitting next to coaches Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton and Cee-Lo Green) revealed a new twist that he believes will carry the drama of The Voice's blind auditions into its battle rounds.

Why American Horror Story is a Miniseries, and This Year's Other Emmy Trivia
The decision to place American Horror Story in the movie and miniseries categories paid off for the show — probably better than anyone expected. The anthology series received a whopping 17 nominations, tied with Mad Men for the most this year. American Horror Story could have gone into the drama field — but the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences ruled earlier this year that it was eligible to be classified as a miniseries. (PBS' Prime Suspect is a previous example of a show that competed in the miniseries category.)Here are several more trivia nuggets and curiosities that have emerged out of this year's Emmy nominations.

Watch My Show: Oh Sit! Executive Producer Phil Gurin Answers Our Showrunner Survey
Did Oh Sit! hit the fans? Oh Sit! — which was originally titled Extreme Musical Chairs, until The CW decided to have some fun with the title — centers on 12 contestants who go through a series of physically challenging obstacle courses to order to claim a chair (as a live band performs). Executive producer Phil Gurin took time to fill out our TV Guide Magazine showrunner survey and explain why Oh Sit! happens.

Watch My Show: Baby Daddy's Dan Berendsen Answers Our Showrunner Survey
Writer Dan Berendsen has become quite the tween and young adult whisperer in recent years, penning series and movies for the young generation — including Hannah Montana: The Movie, Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam and ABC Family's recent drama The Nine Lives of Chloe King. Now Berendsen is back at ABC Family, but this time returning to his sitcom roots with Baby Daddy. The show, which airs Wednesdays at 8:30/7:30c, stars Jean-Luc Bilodeau as a twentysomething guy whose ex-girlfriend dumps their baby at his doorstep and then splits. Tahj Mowry, Melissa Peterman, Derek Theler and Chelsea Kane also star. Berendsen took a pregnant pause to tell us why we should make room for Daddy.

Spotted Outside the Golden Globes: Jen Aniston Ruined My Life

More specifically, I think it was those final, dreadful two seasons of "Friends" that set this guy over the edge.

E-mail of the Day: Alan Rickman Fan Edition

I think we all just want Alan Rickman to be happy. Always.

Don't Forget the Other Truth About Schwarzenegger

(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Don't forget, besides the housekeeper, Arnold also spent the last 8 years screwing California. THANK YOU, GOOD NIGHT! TIP YOUR WAITERS!

(By the way, love the creepiness of this AP photo.)

Ivy Stalker Cams: Over the Line? Or Just a Poor Allocation of Resources?

(Flickr pic by DNewey.)

According to the LA Business Journal, celebrity magnet The Ivy is tired of all the media publicity. The final straw: TMZ's use of a live, ongoing video stream outside the restaurant. According to the paper:

"I find it abhorrent and an invasion of privacy," said Richard Irving, co-founder of the Ivy restaurant on Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Hills, a longtime hangout for Hollywood celebrities and the photographers who follow them. "We've always had our share of paparazzi but this is much more invasive."

TMZ photographers recently began camping out for hours near about a dozen restaurants, hitting different ones on different days. The Ivy is a favored spot because it’s easy to film over its low-slung white picket fence and to get good shots of celebrities eating lunch on the patio.

Unlike TMZ's television show, which typically features 30-second video clips of celebrities coming to and going from restaurants, bars and courthouses, TMZ's unflinching electronic eye near the restaurants streams live video for hours at a time.

As the LABJ notes, there's only so much the Ivy can do. Its wide-open patio puts celebs out in the open -- and that's fair game for telephoto-equipped paparazzi.

Too Bad I'm Not a 12-Year-Old Girl

Attended the SAG awards last night, and brushed past Jake Gyllenhaal before nearly walking right into Zac Efron. A little cooler: I walked right out of the men's room right as Christopher Walken was walking in. Nice guy award: Cuba Gooding, Jr., who stopped to shake the hand of a worker and exchange pleasantries before heading to the men's room as well.

Angelenos of the Week: Paris Hilton and Larry King

And then came the interview. In what will likely be considered the most anticlimatic moment on TV this year, Larry King sat down with Paris Hilton on Wednesday. And better than any media critic had done in shaming the media and the public, the interview itself served as a smack in the face to the masses who had been following the Paris saga.

Anyone watching the interview quickly realized, You know what? She really is quite boring. Even her money, her jail time and her preference to go sans underwear have failed to make her remotely interesting. Thanks to that painfully unexciting hour of television, I have some hope for the first time that people really are ready to move on.

For that, Larry King and Paris Hilton are our Angelenos of the Week.

The Law of Paris

Wait, so when did the Paris Hilton story move from being "entertainment" to becoming a legit news story? ABCNews.com, for example, has placed its latest Paris coverage under the "Law & Justice" subhead rather than "entertainment." I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore by things like this. Yet I still am...

Live from the Twin Towers: Me and Paris

Visited Paris today in lockup... as you can see, she's doing just fine. She appreciates all of your good wishes, and looks forward to her inevitable guest spot on "Oprah."

Angeleno of the Week: Sheriff Lee Baca

He released Public Enemy No. 1 -- that would be Paris Hilton -- from jail, without any good excuse. And more importantly, without the permission of the judge who sent her there. This is the most national and international press that Sheriff Lee Baca has ever gotten -- and very little of it is good. He's not up for re-election until 2010, and that's good news for Baca -- who probably would have been defeated if it were held last week.

For checking Hilton out earily -- and clearly underestimating the furor that would come with it -- Lee Baca is our Angeleno of the Week.

Angeleno of the Week: The Man Who Threw The Book at Paris Hilton

Give this man a syndicated court show. Judge Michael T. Sauer immediately gained the respect of many tabloid-loving, entertainment-obsessed Americans (the kind that actually watch those cheesy courtroom strips) by simply demanding that socialite Paris Hilton do some hard time.

Of course, that hard time won't likely be the 45 days the judge ordered (I'd be happy with even just a few)... and the judge dismissed a TMZ report that he was given a standing ovation at his church (I prefer to believe that one anyway).

From this week's LA Times profile of the judge:

Making references at points to Shakespeare's "Henry V" and the Watergate scandal, Sauer repeatedly questioned Hilton on her understanding of the restrictions of her license suspension — stemming from a September 2006 alcohol-related reckless driving charge. Hilton claimed she mistakenly thought she was still allowed to drive as long as it was for work. Sauer, referencing Watergate, said he sought to understand what Hilton knew and when she knew it.

His ruling, forgoing lighter sentences that wouldn't have involved jail time, indicates that Sauer didn't fully believe Hilton's claims. Since the original incident last fall, Hilton has been pulled over three more times, and each time warned or cited by the officer for driving with a suspended license.

Referencing Henry V and Watergate to an undereducated rich celeb who I'm 100% sure didn't recognize either... we like him even more. That's why Judge Michael Sauer is our Angeleno of the Week!

Andy Richter Controls the Los Angeles Universe

Andy Richter easily wins the prize for the celeb most readily spotted in regular places around the city.

Most recently, my colleague Kathy wound up standing in front of the "Andy Barker, P.I." star at Philippe's. She writes:

"He was very nice. I asked him what that secret way you're supposed to order is... before I realized who he was. He didn't know either. Isn't there some special thing you're supposed to ask for when you order?

Last year, Maria saw Andy Richter eating alone at Cassell's Hamburgers on 6th in Koreatown, scarfing down a burger.

I've also seen Andy and his family at LAX, waiting for baggage. Another time, I was driving down Highland Ave. -- and hell, there was Andy climbing into his car!

Then there's this tale, from Mark Evanier (link via blogging.la):

So about forty minutes ago, I'm in my friendly neighborhood CVS Pharmacy and a lady shopper comes up to me. She says her "favorite actor in the whole world" is over in the next aisle...and I guess she's so excited about it that she has to tell someone. So she tells me and naturally, I ask, "And who might that be?"

She says, "John Candy," and my immediate thought is just what yours would be in this situation: "I don't think so." As I'm thinking that, she's telling me how much she loved him in Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Let's leave aside the question of how someone could be your "favorite actor in the whole world" and yet you're unaware they died thirteen years ago...

Just then, she points to a gap in the aisles and says, "There he is," and I can see the person she thinks is John Candy. There, wearing a green t-shirt and shorts, is Andy Richter. "Do you think it would be okay if I went up to him and asked for an autograph?" she asks me.

I think to myself, "Hmm...I wonder if Andy Richter would enjoy being mistaken for John Candy. He might get a great anecdote out of it, one he could tell on his next talk show appearance. Or he might just feel insulted...I don't know." I decide to save the lady the embarrassment and I break it to her, as kindly as I can, that John Candy passed away some time ago.

There you have it. Andy Richter, at Philippe's, Cassell's, LAX, on Highland, and at CVS. Stars... they're just like us!