'Family Guy' DVD for the fans
A new animated comedy DVD -- Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story -- is a big shout out and thank you to the fans of the show.
"Fans saved the show," says Family Guy writer-producer Chris Sheridan, who collaborated on the feature-length, 88-minute movie. It debuted on DVD this week under the banners: "All-new, outrageous, uncensored!" and "Pee-in-your-pants fun!"
Sheridan says: "We wanted to say thanks."
The adult-oriented, animated Family Guy series was revived in May after being cancelled by Fox. Two factors were crucial: DVD box sets of earlier seasons sold millions, and re-runs set records on the Cartoon Network. Fox could not ignore the millons in fresh revenues.
So that saga is savagely lampooned in The Untold Story, along with a fresh Stewie adventure in which he joins the talking dog Brian and the sex-crazed neighbour Quagmire on an epic trip to San Francisco.
The movie is actually three new episodes bound together by a framing device in which the members of the Griffin clan are stars going to their movie premiere. The Griffins are allowed to break the fourth wall and exist outside their own show, allowing for the Fox insults.
"The fans are just clamouring for it," Sheridan told The Toronto Sun about the revived show and now the new DVD during a Toronto visit with co-writers Steve Callaghan and Mike Henry (who is also the voice of Cleveland).
"Four years ago, the first time we were cancelled, we told Fox they were making a mistake, and the second time we were cancelled that they were making a bigger mistake. And it's sort of great to be here now. We were right and they were wrong."
Callaghan, known as the "voice of reason" in the writers room, does want to tone down the Fox criticism.
"As much fun as we had at the network's expense," he says, "they deserve a lot of credit for picking the show back up. Because it would have been very easy for pride or ego or whatever to get in the way of their making the decision they did. We're glad to have our jobs back and we're thankful to them and they're good sports about us giving them a hard time."
As for the caustic jokes, "we're calling it like it is," says Henry. "They basically made a mistake and we're calling them on it -- because that's what we tend to do."
The three Stewie episodes may eventually be broadcast separately, but they are joined here to create a full story in which the venomous baby searches for his roots.
"Bottom line," Sheridan says, "he is the most popular character (on Family Guy). It felt natural, in doing the movie, to make Stewie the central character of it. You feel that, if he wasn't the centre of it, people would be disappointed. And Stewie would be damn pissed! So that was a conscious effort."
The finding-himself story was more challenging than having Stewie once again try to kill Lois or take over the world, Sheridan says. "It's more emotional and more character-driven than if it became an action sequence. There are action sequences within it, but I don't think you could drive this movie if it wasn't emotionally based -- like any movie."
Smart folks writing smart jokes
Family Guy writer-producer Chris Sheridan figures he knows the secret to the show's phenomenal success.
"I think the mystery ingredient, to some extent, is that we have a lot of smart writers on the show," he tells the Sun during a recent Toronto visit.
"And there are a lot of smart people who watch Family Guy. The reality is that smart people who get a Benjamin Disraeli joke actually like fart jokes, too, and in other circles probably wouldn't admit it. But it's funny sometimes. It's funny to hear someone fart."
The classy trash factor has led to a bonanza in DVD box set sales. Family Guy: Volume 1 (which is comprised of seasons one and two) and Family Guy: Volume 2 (which is season three) are already in stores and selling millions. Volume 3 (the 2005 revived season, which launched May 1) is set for DVD release on Nov. 29.
The new DVD, Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, is a single DVD with the feature-length Stewie movie plus a group commentary headed up by creator Seth MacFarlane, as well as a risque "bonus uncensored audio track" and other less significant extras.
The writers get away with more extreme situations and saltier language than in the regular show. But even on the regular Family Guy, they push the limits.
"Look," says Sheridan, "you get away with a lot in animation. Stewie does horrible, horrible things but he's really cute and so you get away with it.
"On the DVD, he kills (I'm censoring this to avoid playing the spoiler). Yet he's a baby. He's screaming. He's cussing. But, you put a pacifier in his mouth and he suckles himself to sleep. And I think that's the beauty of that character, because he can be a monster and yet he's still a little baby and you've got to love him!"
Myers to play Keith Moon in biopic
Mike Myers is set to star as Keith Moon in an as-yet-untitled film about the renowned drummer of The Who, Variety reports.
The Canadian actor had shown interest in playing Moon a few years ago, but was too busy tackling the roles of four characters in "Austin Powers in Goldmember."
The Who singer Roger Daltrey is producing the movie, which he has been working on and off for almost 10 years.
The film is now being fast tracked, and the next step is the selection a director.
Back in 2002, Britain's Sun tabloid quoted Daltrey as saying Myers would be perfect to play the lead in a biopic on the life of Moon, who died in 1978 in what was at the time described as an accidental overdose.
"Mike is a genius," Daltry reportedly told the tabloid.
"I can really see him as Keith. He's amazing when you meet him, so clever."
During his short life (he was 32 when he died), Moon became famous for his chaotic drumming style, bizarre sense of humour and penchant for destroying hotel rooms.
Myers last appeared on screen in 2003's "The Cat in the Hat."
The odd couple
NEW YORK Walking along 42nd Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue this past month, you could have turned in either direction and spotted Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.
At Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, the actors are represented as the characters who brought them together on stage: Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, the bumbling protagonists of Mel Brooks' The Producers.
Across the street, Broderick and Lane have been rehearsing in the flesh for a new production of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple. Previews begin next Tuesday at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, where the show, directed by Joe Mantello, opens Nov. 4. If you haven't nabbed a ticket yet, as they say in Max and Leo's business, break a leg.
Like The Producers, Simon's 40-year-old comedy finds Lane and Broderick stepping into roles made famous by other performers. Art Carney and Walter Matthau introduced unlikely roommates Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison on Broadway, while Jack Lemmon and Matthau played them on screen. For millions of TV viewers, Tony Randall's fussy Felix and Jack Klugman's gruff Oscar became definitive incarnations.
But the stiffest competition for the new couple Broderick as Felix; Lane as Oscar may be themselves. Though their only joint project prior to The Producers was the animated Disney flick The Lion King, their rapport in Brooks' hit musical established them as a showbiz dream team.
"There's this mythology about Nathan and Matthew, though they've just done one play together," Mantello says. That mythology may take on new proportions in December, when The Producers: The Movie Musical arrives, with Broderick, Lane and Broadway co-stars Roger Bart and Gary Beach reprising their roles alongside Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell.
For now, Broderick, 43, and Lane, 49, seem content to be the hottest duo treading the boards this fall.
Q: I've heard you two described as an iconic team. Do you have a sense of being viewed that way?
Broderick: I feel like we've had this history in vaudeville, like we came up through the circuit together.
Lane: It's unusual. It doesn't happen much anymore. The last team you can really think of is (Jackie) Gleason and (Art) Carney on television. I guess you could say Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. Well, Owen Wilson, he'll team with anyone.
Broderick: So will I. How about Chris Farley and -
Lane: David Spade? Were they an iconic team?
Broderick: They did four or five movies together.
Lane: That doesn't make them iconic. (Pause) You know, to us, it's just about being two actors who respect each other and enjoy working together. We became friends doing The Producers.
Broderick: That show was a perfect fit, right from the shoot for the poster. Maybe we won't have it here. Then we'll have the big breakup.
Q: Let's not get ahead of ourselves. How did the idea to work together again in The Odd Couple come about?
Broderick: I've always loved that play, and in the back of my mind, I knew that some day I wanted to do it. I like all of Neil's plays, and I hadn't worked with him in 20 years or something.
Lane: When I was a kid, I joined the Fireside Theater Play of the Month Club, and the first play they sent me was The Odd Couple. So it's always been in the back of my head as well. We mentioned it to Manny (Azenberg, Simon's longtime producer) while we were doing The Producers.
Broderick: We were just starting, still in previews.
Lane: Then (Simon) wrote this letter where he said, "I really want you to play Oscar and (Broderick) to play Felix. I'm not going to give the rights to anyone else; I want you guys, so let's work out the timing." What a great way to be able to honor him, with one of his best plays. We both have a history with him, obviously. (Broderick starred in Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues on Broadway, and the latter on film, while Lane's credits include the original Broadway production of the playwright's Laughter on the 23rd Floor and the national tour of his Broadway Bound.)
Q: What was it like working with him on an older piece?
Broderick: He changed a line here or there, but it was different from working with him on original plays. In those days, he would wander off and come back with a whole new scene.
Lane: Every once in a while, he would still come over with a new page and say, "What do you think?" He couldn't resist. But we all decided to just do the original play. Don't update it, don't give them cellphones, you know? It's a period piece, a comedy set in the '60s about divorce.
Q: A lot of people are most familiar with The Odd Couple through the television series. Do you think they'll find surprises in this production?
Lane: The TV show was wonderful but doesn't have much to do with the play. Especially Tony's take on Felix. The show incorporated Tony's love of opera, and it really became a much more flamboyant character through his performance, which was great. In the play, I mean, he is this obsessive-compulsive type, but he's also an extremely distraught man who has lost his marriage. It's gotten so bad that his wife says, "You have to leave, I can't take this anymore." And that kills him, because that was his whole life.
Broderick: Both characters have some distance from their divorces in the TV series. Both are more comfortable with it; they go on dates. This is more about taking that first step.
Lane: Yeah, even in my case. I don't think (Oscar) was a guy who cared that much about how the house was taken care of. But now that there isn't someone there to take care of things, it's really gone to seed. He gives this impression of, "Yeah, life's fine; I go on, I like playing poker and drinking and having a cigar with my friends, and I have a great job." But when his kid calls him, it hurts a little. And he gets into a little thing with his wife; he's $800 behind in alimony.
Broderick: That's a lot of money back in 1965. Our rent is $240.
Lane: How about that?
Q: So the comedy isn't as broad or consistently wacky as it was in The Producers?
Lane: Not at all. It's all about behavior. There's a very sweet quality to it.
Broderick: And a musical, by nature, is different. In The Producers, most of our scenes were short. There were a couple of quick jokes, and then something else happened or you sang. In this play, we're sitting around blathering.
Lane: I think it's more than blathering.
Broderick: It is it's a lot more, which makes it challenging. You have to figure out how to keep it alive and interesting for long stretches. You're not thinking "one more minute and then a tank is going to roll on with a Nazi in it."
Q: Speaking of Nazis, are you pleased with how the new screen adaptation of The Producers turned out?
Lane: I haven't seen the entire movie put together, but I've seen bits and pieces and liked everything I saw. They had these test screenings recently that went extraordinarily well.
Broderick: It looks a lot like the (stage version), which I think is very smart. They didn't reinvent it too much.
Lane: We're not Chicago, if you consider that the template for a modern movie musical that works. We're not dark and sexy well, Uma's sexy. But we're a comedy. You couldn't suddenly make it all dark and gritty.
Q: Then it's not structured so that the story takes place inside Leo Bloom's head, like Chicago shown through the perspective of Renee Zellweger's Roxie?
Broderick: Hmmm. Maybe I just could have gotten hit on the head on the way to the office, and suddenly I'd see people dancing around and singing -
Lane: And then you wake up in a hospital room in a coma at the end. The doctor says, "He'll never sing again." Good night, everybody!
Q: But we'll be seeing so much of you in the coming months, between the movie and the play.
Broderick: Are we overexposing ourselves?
Lane: I don't think we're overexposed. We're not J. Lo and ... whoever.
Broderick: I don't know. Two people on the street came over yesterday and said they had just paid $250 for tickets to the show, and they didn't seem too happy about it. "Well, I just spent $250 to get a ticket to see your show. That's a lot of money." You know, I don't think we're going to be that good.
Lane: Oh, don't say that. Try to be positive.
Weekend update: 'SNL' in 31st season
Saturday Night Live returns this weekend, kicking off its 31st season on NBC (11:30 p.m. ET/PT). But the show will be back minus one of its key players: Tina Fey, writer and Weekend Update co-anchor.
Fey, 35, gave birth to baby Alice on Sept. 10. Fey's husband, Jeff Richmond, is a composer for SNL.
Creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels says Fey's absence is open-ended. "She knows that she should come back when she feels up to it. I don't have any idea when that will be."
It could be weeks and weeks, or "it could be months and months," he says. "I just hope it's not years and years."
So who will do the Weekend Update news sketch, which last season after Jimmy Fallon left was co-anchored by Fey and Amy Poehler?
"Amy and someone," Michaels says. "I don't know who."
He's also not sure about another key player: Maya Rudolph, 33, who is seven months pregnant. Lorne says he met with the comedian last week in Los Angeles, and she is awaiting her doctor's approval to travel to New York for the Saturday Night Live premiere.
"All I want is the audience to sort of get a glimpse of her so that everybody understands why when she disappears," he says. "She's such an essential part of the show that I can't imagine her not being there and Tina not being there. I'm just in denial about all of it."
After 30 years, Michaels doesn't seem too worried. But that blasι-sounding attitude doesn't mean he's bored. "I sort of feel, with having completed the 30th season, that it's a new beginning.
"I'm just setting out to do shows with people I think are really funny and we can sort of be 'reinvention' is too strong a word. I think we're at the end of one cycle, and now there's a lot of new energy at the show. I'm hoping it'll spill onto the air."
Two new "featured players" are in the cast this season:
Bill Hader, originally from Tulsa, was a member of the Second City Los Angeles comedy troupe and most recently was a "field agent" on MTV's Punk'd.
Andy Samberg, a native of Berkeley, Calif., was one of three writer/performer/filmmakers dubbed "The Lonely Island," whose films were showcased on Channel101.com.
Michaels says he expects the two to "make their mark quickly."
The season premiere will be hosted by Daily Show alum Steve Carell, star of the feature film The 40-Year-Old Virgin and NBC's comedy The Office (Tuesday, 9:30 p.m. ET/PT). Carell co-starred with Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty.
Musical guest for the season premiere will be hip-hop artist Kanye West, who made headlines during a Hurricane Katrina benefit performance on nationwide TV when he accused President Bush of not caring about the plight of black people.
Michaels says that Robert Smigel has a new cartoon and that there will be the usual political satire, but he's not sure exactly what the topic will be. "God knows there has been a lot we could have done in the last six weeks. That tends to get written in the last two days."
Lohan Bares All for Vanity Fair
Lindsay Lohan is set to bare all for an upcoming Vanity Fair cover. The 19-year-old Mean Girls star, who has been the subject of weight loss shock stories in the US media for the past year, is keen to show off her healthy figure - and she has chosen to get naked for the style magazine. According to America's In Touch magazine, Lohan shot the top secret cover photo on a beach in Malibu, California last week - and it was actually her idea to pose naked. A source says, "It was Paris Hilton's recent Vanity Fair cover, where she's topless and covering her breasts with her arms, that inspired Lindsay to push the envelope even further." In some of the Vanity Fair photos, Lindsay mimics her idol, Marilyn Monroe.
Record industry sues hundreds for file-sharing
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A trade group representing the U.S. music industry said on Thursday it filed lawsuits against 757 people it claims used online file-sharing networks to illegally trade in copyrighted songs.
The latest round brings the total copyright infringement lawsuits filed against individuals to 14,800 filed by the U.S. music industry.
Of the 757 filed on Thursday, about 64 were filed against individuals using college networks, said the Recording Industry Association of America, which represents labels like Sony/BMg and Vivendi Universal's Universal.
Eddie Vedder goes 'Wild' with Stones
NEW YORK (Billboard) - The Rolling Stones got a lift from Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder during their performance of "Wild Horses" at Pittsburgh's PNC Stadium Wednesday.
Earlier in the evening, Pearl Jam played an hour-long opening set featuring such hits as "Alive," "Even Flow," "Daughter," "Black," "Jeremy" and "Better Man."
The band previously opened four Oakland, Calif., shows for the Stones on the 1997 Bridges to Babylon tour, the last of which saw Vedder join the band for "Waiting on a Friend." Pearl Jam's fall tour resumes Friday and Saturday in Atlantic City, N.J., while the Stones' A Bigger Bang trek moves on Saturday to Hershey, Pa., where Beck is the opening act.
Eisner leaves mixed legacy as Disney chief
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When Michael Eisner hands over the keys to Disney's Magic Kingdom on Friday after 21 years of running the media giant, he'll leave behind a stormy legacy -- brilliant early success mixed later with executive turmoil, an operational slump and a shareholder revolt.
But industry experts say that ironically, as Eisner says farewell as Disney's chief executive officer, the company has begun to return to the double-digit earnings growth that marked his first decade running Disney with late president Frank Wells.
Under new CEO Bob Iger, Disney will continue facing challenges settling issues at its movie studio -- including landing a new distribution deal with Pixar Animation Studios. But with a new park in Hong Kong open, and a turnaround at TV broadcaster ABC in progress, Eisner is leaving on a high note.
"His legacy is brilliance, mixed with turmoil," said Hal Vogel, a veteran Wall Street analyst and money manager who has tracked the media industry for years.
There is no doubt that Eisner's tenure has been successful. In the 21 years since he joined a then struggling Disney, the company has gone from $1.5 billion in annual revenues to nearly $31 billion today.
The stock price was $1.33 in 1984 and traded at around $24 a share on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. Disney has split its shares since 1984, and Disney said $10,000 of its stock 21 years ago would now be worth more than $200,000.
When Eisner ran the company alongside No. 2 executive Frank Wells, it seemed Disney could do no wrong. Along with studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, they reinvigorated Disney's vaunted film animation group, cranking out movies like "The Lion King."
SUCCESS TO MISSTEPS
The early successes peaked in 1995 when Disney agreed to acquire Capital Cities/ABC, which owned the ABC and ESPN TV networks, in a $19 billion deal. A year earlier, Wells died in a helicopter crash.
Katzenberg left Disney after failing to ascend to Wells' job. Eisner instead hired Hollywood superagent Michael Ovitz to be president, but he departed in 1996 after clashing with other Disney executives and his former friend, Eisner.
Katzenberg later sued Disney for bonus money and settled for an amount reported to be around $250 million, and Ovitz got a severance package with an estimated value at $140 million.
"After Frank died, you can't say the company did much of anything that was all that brilliant," said one former Disney executive who asked to remain unidentified.
Although ESPN has proven highly valuable, ABC stumbled badly until this past year when hit comedy "Desperate Housewives" and drama "Lost" sparked a viewership rebound and higher advertising revenues.
Wall Street viewed Disney as paying too much in 2001 when it agreed to acquire Fox Family Channel from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Ltd. for $5.2 billion, including debt.
The company had been an ambitious player on the Internet, but in 2001, it shuttered its uncompetitive GO.com Web portal and took over $800 million in quarterly charges.
Like others, Disney's theme parks suffered from a tourism slump after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, although they have since rebounded.
The missteps caused Roy Disney, nephew of company founder Walt Disney, to launch a campaign to oust Eisner. The board made many of the changes Roy Disney advocated, although Eisner leaves on his own terms.
Iger still faces issues ahead. ABC's recent hits need support from new shows like presidential drama "Commander in Chief" to keep ratings momentum going.
And the studio must rejuvenate its Miramax Films specialty division and its animated division, perhaps signing a new distribution agreement with Pixar Animation Studios Inc. after Eisner alienated Pixar CEO Steve Jobs.