Moraes on TV - Television columnist Lisa de Moraes. - July 16, 2006

Icon as a Dirty Word

Every season there's a troubled show. The show that is announced for a network's prime-time schedule but never actually debuts; or it debuts but gets yanked immediately. Critics know to look for the red flags. This season they've zeroed in on ABC's new "Brothers and Sisters," starring a large ensemble...

Press Tour Serialized Drama

Note to cast and producers of the many new serialized dramas who plan to participate in Q&A sessions at Summer TV Press Tour 2006: Critics are going to ask how you plan to get viewers to commit to your show, given how many serialized dramas are already on the air,...

Free to Be Cynical

TV critics attending the new CW network's Summer TV Press Tour 2006 party, in the garden of the Ritz Carlton Huntington hotel in Pasadena, jammed a so-called CW Lounge area, in which hostesses were printing T- shirts with the network's Free to Be [fill in the word] marketing campaign. They...

Color-Blind Casting

"Friends" exec producer David Crane came to Summer TV Press Tour 2006 over the weekend to promote his next all-white ensemble sitcom about a bunch of people living in an urban East Coast setting - this time Philly. It's called "The Class," it's for CBS, and it's about a group...

Red Carpet

A Goodyear blimp hovers over the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, welcoming critics to the CBS Summer TV Press Tour Punt, Pass, and Kick party. Another sports-themed CBS party -- another opportunity for CBS to serve hotdogs to critics. Photographers are lined up outside the stadium at Gate A, next...

Moraes on TV: July 16, 2006 - July 22, 2006

Icon as a Dirty Word

Press Tour Serialized Drama

Free to Be Cynical

Color-Blind Casting

Red Carpet