Arrested Development: The End of the Road

It was just earlier this month that premium service Showtime agreed to pick-up Arrested Development from Fox. It all seemed so certain. A done deal.

And therefore it's with great sadness that I announce the official demise of Arrested Development.

In an 11th-hour decision, Arrested creator Mitchell Hurwitz decided late yesterday to walk away from the project. As you know, Showtime had given Arrested a firm 26-episode, 2-season commitment… but this deal was contingent on Hurwitz continuing his involvement with the show. All seemed well, and all parties involved expected Hurwitz to sign the deal by June. However, Hurwitz announced late yesterday that was quitting the show, citing that he had already given everything he had to the show, and that any further attempts to deliver on the brand that is Arrested Development would never live up to expectations.

Executive producer Jim Vallely, a close ally of Hurwitz, called the demise of the show “heartbreaking.”

Arrested star Jason Bateman was said to have mixed emotions over the demise of the show; while he was sad over the fact that it was coming to an end, he was happy that the three seasons would live on forever on DVD.

Hurwitz also leaves us with this tidbit: while he feels that Arrested has “run its course” as a series, he could envision an Arrested Development feature film.

Finally: a TV-to-movie transfer actually worth seeing. Take THAT, Ice Cube.

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Goodbye WBRU?

I’m hearing rampant rumors that long-time Providence alternative rocker WBRU (95.5 FM) is about to be sold.

For 36 years, the Brown University-affiliated WBRU has been Southeastern New England’s pre-eminent alt-rock station, beating back several modern-rock challengers over the years (including 99.7 The Edge and 103.7 FNX). If these rumors turn out to be true, then he big question becomes: will the new owners retain the classic WBRU format?

36 years with the same format is an eternity in the radio business, and yes, over the past few years, WBRU’s reach on the total audience has diminished. Within its core target of college-age listeners, however, BRU remains at the top. But is that enough to keep the new owners satisfied?

I can confirm that while WBRU’s Arbitron numbers have trended downward, BRU continues to command a premium price for its advertising. The bottom line is that if you want to reach those young, college-age males, then BRU is a must-buy station within your advertising plan. And THAT bit of information can aid the cause of those who want WBRU to remain Providence’s alt-rocker.

Let's face it: BRU ain't what it used to be; its glory days are well-behind it. But there's still a lot of life left in that old frequency (a frequency which, by the way, began life as WJAR-FM many many years ago). Without WBRU and its unique brand of alt-rock, the Providence airwaves would never be the same.

Or maybe - just maybe - this rumor was started as part of an April Fool's Day prank by the BRU jocks. Don't be surprised if this "prank" theory turns out to be true...

Stay tuned…

More "Flavor of Love" News

Following up on this week's earlier news from the bizarro world of Flavor of Love... it seems that final-3 contestant (and launcher of the "spit heard 'round the world") Pumkin has become a victim of her own fame (or should I say infamy???): she was fired this week from her job as a substitute teacher in the Bakersfield (CA) school system.

On Monday of this week, Pumkin (real name: Brooke) was informed by the Kern High School District that her services "were no longer required." It seems that school officials felt that her celebrity status as one of Flavor Flav's also-rans was "distracting" students. Supposedly, the school in which she had most recently been teaching has already been dealing with students "sticking their heads into her classroom" just to get a look at the one-time nemisis of Flavor of Love's New York, and thus school officials feared that things were only going to get even crazier.

Come on - like YOU wouldn't be doing the same thing if this woman showed up as a teacher in YOUR school!


REMINDER: The Flavor of Love Reunion is scheduled to debut on April 2 at 8:00pm on VH1. Please set your TiVos accordingly.

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Arrested Update

Recently you read in this space that beloved comedy Arrested Development would be back for 26 new episodes, courtesy of a two-season pick-up by premium service Showtime.

Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but there may be one slight complication to Showtime's plan: creator Mitch Hurwitz HASN'T SIGNED THE DEAL yet!! Supposely, he's having "second thoughts," citing the exhaustive workload associated with producing a show such as Arrested. Hurwitz has until June to pull the trigger, as the cast's holding contract will expire then.

Come on, Mitch: Showtime has delivered the contract, and will likely pony up whatever cash you're looking for. SIGN THAT DEAL!!!

Flavor of Love... TWO??

It's quite possible that VH1's Flavor of Love may be the best-ever "so bad it's good" reality show. This tacky take on The Bachelor had it all: a repulsive star, outrageous contestants, absurd guests, and lots of good, old-fashioned DRAMA. This was a GOOD bad show.

With that said... Flav fans, listen up: nothing's official yet, and no one is talking on-the-record, but it's possible that we MAY see a Flavor of Love 2!!!!

Now why, you may be asking, would we need another season of television's most tasteless dating show if Flav and Flavor of Love winner "Hoopz" (the recipient of the "final clock") were such a happy couple?

Well... the inside word is that the romance between Flavor Flav and Hoopz was a no-go from the start. Not only has nothing happened between them, since the final show Hoopz hasn’t even returned any of Flav’s phone calls, and I'm told that behind-the-scenes at the reunion show Hoopz pretty much kept her distance from Foufy Foufy. Sadly, it looks as if Hoopz was using our Flav simply to further her acting and modeling "career." Hey, who knew that Brigitte Nielsen was such a good judge of character?

So what does this mean for the humble television viewer? Well, with no romance between Flav and Hoopz (real name: Nikki), our Mr. F. will likely again be looking for love… and with the ratings for Flavor of Love in the stratosphere, you can bet that the suits at VH1 will be working fast and furiously to find a new batch of twenty women to move into Flav’s “phat crib.” Yeah, boyeeeeee! Keep your fingers crossed and your gold teeth nearby.

By the way – runner-up "New York" seems to be doing pretty well for herself since placing second to Hoopz. It seems as if New York has found herself a boyfriend! Thanks to her appearances on the show, she was recognized by a man at an L.A. nightclub… he proceeded to ask her out… and the rest is made-for-television-romance history.

To this day, New York (a/k/a/ Tiffany) claims that her love for Flav was true… but now that's she's found a new man, she’s no longer in love with Mr. F.

Kinda tugs at your heart... doesn’t it?

Say It Ain't So... One & Two

The latest from the “say it ain’t so” department…

Say it ain’t so, item #1: NBC, borrowing a page from the playbooks of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and Fox’s Skating with Celebrities, has announced a new reality series: Celebrity Cooking Showdown. Yes, Celebrity Cooking Showdown, and no, I’m not making it up. NBC calls it “an adrenaline-filled battle of the pans.” Battle of the pans??? Oh, NBC – have things really gotten this desperate for you?

By the way - the series is being produced by Sean “Diddy” Combs. No, I’m not making that up, either.


Say it ain’t so, item #2: the latest classic television series to make the leap from the small screen to the theatrical screen is none other than 70s not-so-classic sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. In trumpeting the project, Dimension Films announced that rapper Ice Cube has been cast in the lead role of teacher Mr. Kotter, a role originally made famous in the seventies by comedian Gabe Kaplan.

Note to self: if you want to make a bad concept even worse, cast Ice Cube in a role originated by Gabe Kaplan.




Flavor Follow-up

The numbers are in, and the finale of Flavor of Love earned the highest rating in VH1 history, attracting 5.9 million viewers. This episode also has claimed the crown of 2005-2006’s highest-rated non-sports program among adults 18-49. That rating was good enough to top the debut of HBO’s new Big Love series (which, by the way, had the mega-benefit of following the season premiere of The Sopranos). Yeah, boyeeeeeeee!

And just when you thought that things couldn't get any better... coming soon: Flavor of Love: The Reunion.

A Sunday to Remember

Last night was a BIG television night. Specifically, there were two very important shows of note on the schedule... shows which occupy opposing ends of the television "quality spectrum"

First, on the high-end of the quality spectrum, the long-awaited return (it's been 21 months since the last new episode) of The Sopranos hit the screen on HBO. And oh boy, hit the screen it did!

David Chase more than made up for lost time, first with a story involving minor character Gene Pontecorvo and his desire to retire from "the business," and then with a straight-out-of-left-field plot twist that produced one of the most shocking and most memorable scenes in Sopranos history (and maybe next time, Tony Soprano will think twice before sending Uncle Junior upstairs to find his teeth). To say that this episode ended with a bang would be an understatement.

This is as good as television gets, humble viewers.

Then, on the other end of the video quality scale, there's a little show called Flavor of Love, which had its finale last night at 10:00 on VH1. If you've seen it, then I'm sure you'll agree that Flavor of Love has earned a place in the television "so bad it's good" hall of fame.

For those of you unfamiliar with the show, Flavor of Love is an extremely-tacky version of the reality show The Bachelor (itself a tacky contest, but that's another discussion for another time). In Flavor of Love, Public Enemy frontman Flavor Flav (the guy with the big clock around his neck) is the "bachelor" looking for love.

To say that the twenty women from whom he had to choose represented a "unique" group would be an understatment.

In the end (and after the world's-greatest-catfight-ever one week earlier), there were two left standing: "Hoopz" and "New York" (Flav's self-chosen nicknames for the women). And when shouting stopped and the spit stopped flying, Hoopz emerged as the woman who won the heart of Mr. Flav. And if to the victor goes the spoils, then in this case the spoils were a set of tacky, custom-made gold teeth for our champion Hoopz.

Oh, and she gets Flavor Flav, too.

Now that I think about it, maybe gold teeth aren't so bad after all...

Arrested Lives!

THIS JUST IN

Okay, Arrested Development fans – are you sitting down?

It looks as if the impossible is actually about to happen: I’ve just learned that the deal to move Arrested Development to Showtime has finally been brokered and (barring any 11th-hour complications) a public announcement to that effect will be made by the premium service within the next several days.

The Showtime deal calls for 26 new Arrested episodes to be produced and telecast over two seasons. The Showtime deal will likely also call for Showtime to gain the telecast rights to all of the previously-produced Fox episodes.

Feel free to celebrate with mass quantities of the traditional celebratory items: champagne, pepperoni pizza, and Cadbury creme eggs.