Dish Of Salt: Burning Up At The TCAs (Juy 25, 2006)

The summer is in full swing and I need a vacation. Thank goodness I’m leaving on one straightaway. After spending three full days out in Pasadena, California, this week, at the NBC and FOX TCA’s, I’m officially burned out. It didn’t help that the thermometer read 117 degrees every day. Of course, I wasn’t really feeling the heat stuck in a dark hotel room for 12 hours a day conducting back-to-back interviews.

Now, for those of you who are not regular Dish of Salt readers, I’ll just give you a refresher on what TCA’s entail. TCA stands for Television Critics Association. Essentially, every July a group of TV critics gather out in California for about two weeks and sit in a room to watch previews of the new Fall shows. Then, they get to ask questions to the stars of the show in a panel format. The stars are then brought over to the entertainment news shows to continue hyping up their project for TV reporters. The problem arises in that most of the shows have not begun production. The only thing most of the stars have shot is the pilot. So, they really don’t have all that much too talk up. Needless to say it’s all pretty boring. Check out the photo of me hanging out on the floor of the hotel room during a very long break. This is the non-glamorous side of entertainment. However, there were some highlights.

Being from Pittsburgh, my day was made, on Saturday, when Jerome Bettis entered the room. Bettis retired this year from the Pittsburgh Steelers after their triumphant Super Bowl win. He’ll be teaming up with Chris Collinsworth, Sterling Sharpe and Bob Costas for NBC’s Sunday Night Football pre-game and half time show. Meeting celebrities is pretty much an everyday occurrence to me so I take it for granted. Ok, that’s a lie. I actually really just don’t find them all that interesting. Truthfully, they are just like you and me except better looking and richer! Something about football players from my hometown just excite me more than meeting say Madonna. Besides all the guys remarked on how good I looked in my short shorts. C’mon, it’s 117 degrees outside what did you expect me to wear, a parka.

Chris Collinsworth made the move over from FOX where he had been part of the pre-game show with Terry Bradshaw. He had the line of the day when he asked me if I had seen Terry in “Failure to Launch” or more so had I seen Terry’s derriere in the film. He quipped after he saw the film, “I turned off the DVD player AND sold my TV. I forget Terry was a sixty-year-old guy until I saw his backside.” It was a little disturbing. Why didn’t we get to see Matthew McConaughey’s rear assets instead?

My pal, Piers Morgan, one of the judges on “America’s Got Talent” still won’t let me live down the fact that I spelled his name wrong in a column last week. He wants you to know he’s Piers not Pierce like the former Bond guy. It was a typo. I know who he is!

The show was picked up for another season much to the dismay of David Hasselhoff. The Hoff told me he went into the series thinking it would be a nice summer gig and then that would be it. Even though his deal hasn’t been set, he’s pretty sure it will all work out for him to be back, “ I wasn’t really excited about that this morning because I don?t want to be a judge for the rest of my life but I’m actually having a lot of fun. Secretly it?s becoming a guilty pleasure. I like the people a lot and that?s the most important thing, to go to work and have a team of people that you like and then the paycheck is not important.”

Things turned a little more upbeat, on Monday morning at the FOX TCA, when I had a chance to catch up with all the boys from “Prison Break”. Is there anyone cuter on TV right now than Wentworth Miller? Plus, he went to high school in Pittsburgh, which earns him bonus points in my book. The guys were not so loose with the information about season two except to say that nobody is safe and any one of them could be killed off at any time. I do know for sure that the actress who plays Sucre’s girlfriend will not be returning to the series. She has been cast in an ABC show called “The Nine.” Amaury Nolasco who plays Sucre told me they talked about re-casting but no one wanted to do that. So, the writers have figured out a way to get work it out. Of course, he wouldn’t tell me.

Dominic Purcell, who plays death row inmate, Lincoln Burrows, told me a great story about how one day he was in a Long Beach, CA drugstore and the woman at the cash register freaked out. Apparently, she thought he really was an escaped convict because she had seen his face on a billboard promoting the show on the freeway. She screamed and called for security. Fortunately, the security guard recognized him as the actor from Prison Break. Otherwise things could have gotten pretty ugly.

If you haven’t been able to catch “Prison Break” then do yourself a favorite and go out and buy the Season One DVD on August 8th. It’s the best edge of your seat show on TV (with possibly the exception of Showtime’s “Sleeper Cell”)

I also had a chance to talk to Brad Garrett yesterday who has a new sitcom on Fox, “‘Til Death”. Well, actually its more like looking up his nose the whole time. He is so tall you’re just basically staring straight up his nostrils. He’s hysterical though because he goes off on these tangents while you are interviewing him. Then he tells you he knows we can never use the stuff on air because its so off color. Sorry, Brad but yet again you are correct.

Following Brad’s show on Fox is another new sitcom called “Happy Hour.” It’s an ensemble cast with a bunch of newcomers who were literally my last interview of the day and the last of the entire TCA session. It could not have ended on a better note. I spoke to three members of the cast, John Sloan, Lex Medlin and Beth Lacke who were just a joy to talk too. They’re funny, sweet and don’t take themselves to seriously. They are the type of actors you wish would be successful because you know fame won?t go to their heads (too much). The show has a very “Friends”-esque feel to it and the pilot episode is very funny. Lex and Beth’s characters steal the show in the same way that Jack & Karen were the best part of “Will & Grace.”

Unfortunately, you will of course have to wait until September for all of these shows to premiere.