Category: Television

New Sketches and Gay Budgie for Monty Python Fans
Monty Python fans will be treated to something completely different this summer when three sketches by the irreverent British comedy troupe are performed in public for the first time.
The sketches, each lasting about four minutes and featuring characters including an overworked Messiah and a gay budgie, will be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The sketches were written by the late Python star Graham Chapman and found in Los Angeles by his literary executor, the paper said.
Chapman died of cancer in 1989, aged 49.
Comedy group Sketch Club will face the task of capturing Monty Python’s outrageous style when they perform the unmistakably Pythonesque skits in Scotland.
“They are very obviously by the same writer and they are very funny,” Sketch Club producer Brian West told the paper.
Monty Python, a group of five talented British comedians and an American animator, re-wrote the comedy rule books when they debuted on BBC television in 1969.
Known for a crushing cartoon foot and sketches about silly walks and a dead parrot, the troupe wrote a string of hit films. Members of the group, including John Cleese and Eric Idle, went on to successful television and movie careers.

Will Scott Bakula “Leap” Again?
Ever since the Sci-Fi Channel announced its intention to produce a two-hour Quantum Leap movie earlier this week, one question has been on everyone’s lips – ‘Will Scott Bakula be involved?’
“You never know. You never know,” was the response yesterday from a smiling Bonnie Hammer, president of the Sci-Fi Channel. Talking to Cinescape’s Eric Mono, Hammer said Bakula, who played Dr. Sam Beckett during the show’s original five-year run, may make a cameo in the television movie.
“Quantum Leap is absolutely a classic,” she continued, explaining the reasoning behind the revival. “It’s done well on our channel in repeats and we’ve always wanted to do a Quantum Leap reunion movie. And then when we started thinking about it and then we merged back with Universal, we said, ‘Wow, let’s do a two-hour movie. Let’s see who we can attract from the original series and let’s start our own.’ So we’re thrilled about that because [Quantum Leap] is so pure sci-fi, but so mainstream that I think we’re going to pull in a whole new audience.”
If a series is commissioned, the Sci-Fi Channel may be intending to use the original Quantum Leap premise, but with a new cast of characters. According to TV Guide, Hammer said the new version may feature a female leaper.
Don P. Bellisario, creator of the original series, will serve as executive producer of the two-hour movie, but as yet there has been no comment from Bakula or co-star Dean Stockwell (‘Quantum’s’ Al) about any possible involvement.

‘Sopranos’ to Focus on Marriage
Tony and Carmela Soprano’s relationship will be at the heart of “The Sopranos” when the hit HBO series returns for its fourth season, series creator David Chase said.
The first year was about Tony and his mother, the second about Tony and his sister and the third about the Soprano children, Chase told the Television Critics Association on Friday.
“This season focuses on Tony and Carmela as a couple, on their marriage,” said Chase, who was generally tightlipped about what will befall the neurotic mobster, his therapist and his friends and relations starting in September.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will be addressed this season, said Chase.
Next season, the fifth, will be his last with the show, he said. He wouldn’t predict that the series will end, noting HBO holds the rights.
“I wouldn’t say it’s irrevocable. If they decide to go on, from a business standpoint, they could.”
James Gandolfini, who stars as Tony Soprano, made a sixth season with him on board sound unlikely.
“I started with him (Chase). I’d like to finish with him,” the actor said via satellite from New York, alongside Edie Falco. She co-stars as Carmela Soprano.
“Aye, aye. Same for me,” said Lorraine Bracco, who plays psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi.

Jerry Springer Show TV’s Worst Ever
Worse than “Hee Haw Honeys.” More trashy than “Celebrity Boxing.” Even more painful than the “XFL.”
TV Guide’s editors have put “The Jerry Springer Show” atop their list of the 50 worst TV shows of all time.
“Awful television shows are a storied part of our society,” TV Guide editor-in-chief Steven Reddicliffe said Friday. “Some of them actually are very successful and are great guilty pleasures. And no one has turned guilty-pleasure TV into more of an art form than Jerry Springer.”
The list is in the magazine’s July 20 issue, on newsstands Monday. It comes two months after TV Guide ranked “Seinfeld” No. 1 on a list of the best 50 shows.
Springer’s syndicated, daytime talk show has aired since 1991.
Second worst on the list was NBC’s “My Mother The Car” (1965-66), followed by NBC, UPN and TNN’s “XFL” (2001); ABC’s “The Brady Bunch Hour” (1977); and CBS’ “Hogan’s Heroes” (1965-71).
Rounding out the top 10 were “Celebrity Boxing” (Fox, 2002-present); “AfterMASH” (CBS, 1983-84); “Cop Rock” (ABC, 1990); “You’re in the Picture” (CBS, 1961); and “Hee Haw Honeys” (syndicated, 1978-79).

ROASTED QUAYLE
Former Murphy Brown star Candice Bergen telling reporters she actually agreed with former Vice President Dan Quayle’s speech 10 years ago in which he criticized her series for its spin on single motherhood. “His speech was a perfectly intelligent speech about fathers not being dispensable and nobody agreed with that more than I did,” she said.

They Are Ripe For The Taking On
“South Park” takes on George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

Sesame Street to Introduce HIV-Positive Muppet
Sesame Street will soon introduce its first HIV-positive Muppet character to children of South Africa, where one in nine people have the virus that can lead to AIDS.
The upbeat female Muppet will join “Takalani Sesame” on Sept. 30 for its third season on the South African Broadcasting Corp.
The character — which has yet to have a name or final color or form — will travel to many if not all of the eight other nations that air versions of the educational children’s show that began in the United States in 1969, said Joel Schneider, vice president and senior adviser to the Sesame Street Workshop.
Schneider said talks are under way to introduce an HIV-positive character to U.S. viewers.
Schneider announced the new character this week at the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain, where he spoke by telephone on Thursday.
“This character will be fully a part of the community,” Schneider said. “She will have high self-esteem. Women are often stigmatized about HIV and we are providing a good role model as to how to deal with one’s situation and how to interact with the community.”
The program is aimed at children from 3 to 7 and the messages delivered by the new character will be “appropriate,” said Schneider, meaning that there will be no explicit mention of sex.
“Not every show will deal explicitly with HIV/AIDS,” Schneider said. “We want to show that here is an HIV-positive member of our community who you can touch and interact with.
“We will be very careful to fashion our messages so they are appropriate to the age group. What do I do when I cut my finger? What do I do when you cut your finger? That sort of thing.”
“Takalani Sesame” will be the second children’s show in South Africa to have an HIV-positive character. But it is believed to be the first among shows designed for preschoolers, said Beatrice Chow, spokeswoman for the Sesame Street Workshop in New York.
In some parts of South Africa, 40 percent of women of child-bearing age are infected with HIV, and in 2000, about 40 percent of adult deaths in South Africa were attributed to AIDS, according to the State Department.

Miller Exits HBO
Dennis Miller’s long-running rant on HBO is ending next month.
The acid-tongued, high-brow comedian is quietly calling it quits after nine years of “Dennis Miller Live.”
HBO officials confirmed that the last original episode will air Aug. 30. No word yet on the guest lineup.
Miller’s weekly rant – a stream-of-consciousness diatribe on the political or cultural flavor of the week – was the trade mark segment of the show.
Miller hasn’t decided what he’ll do next, according to reports. But he is said to be in talks with HBO for specials and other potential projects.
Miller declined to talk to reporters yesterday.
The past six months have been something of a transition period for the mint-popping comic.
Last March he was abruptly dropped by “Monday Night Football” after just two seasons on the air as a color analyst – despite assurances from ABC officials that he’d be back this season – to make room for sports broadcasting legend John Madden.
His erudite “MNF” broadcasting style prompted many viewers to complain that they needed a dictionary in one hand and a thesaurus in the other to watch the games.
Miller first gained national notoriety when he joined that cast of “Saturday Night Live” in 1985 and was best known as the anchor of “SNL’s” faux newscast, “Weekend Update.” He ended each broadcast with a pen flourish across his copy and a quick, “I am outta here.”

PRESIDENTIAL PAY RAISE
The New York Post reporting that Martin Sheen has renegotiated his West Wing deal, tripling his salary for the upcoming season to $300,000 per episode. The new contract also reportedly including guaranteed days off during the week and a recurring role for his daughter, RenÈe Estevez.

He’s Baaaaaaack!
Starting Monday, Phil Donahue is back!