Roger Catlin | TV Eye

Virtual Press Tour Collapses

The absence of press tour this winter because of the writers strike (and the cheapness of NBC) has led to a tangle of conference calls meant to provide TV writers with the same kind of interviews they'd need to write about new and upcoming snows.

Difficult enough to schedule (or in the case of "Lipstick Jungle" session a week ago, to reschedule), they're not the optimum places to get questions answered, especially when some guy from some online concern takes up time with compliments or personal asides.

But today was a real low as something happened where one teleconference set up by one network actually morphed into one from another. And suddenly, those of us who had called into chat with Professor Henry Louis Gates on the impending "African American Lives 2" on PBS were suddenly hearing from the producers and participants of the much less serious impending NBC reality show, "The Baby Borrowers."

The worst part is that because each had something vaguely to do with families, it wasn't immediately discernible when a British producer started talking about what a big hit it was in the BBC wasn't talking about "African-American Lives" (hey, it could have been a hit over there after all). Except that the guy started talking about imposing the reality show framework in order to make its point.

Really? The PBS show is more like a reality show this time around? It did take a minute, honestly, for people on the line to figure out that they'd been magically transferred to the wrong conference call, set up by the same obviously overworked company. It was as if the ballroom press conference at one press tour session had suddenly melted and become another session.

Once we on the PBS line (or formerly on it) figured out what was going on, we held on, curious in a way to see which of our colleagues had voluntarily chosen to hear about the NBC reality show instead of the PBS Black History Month event (I'm looking at you, much-syndicated Mike Hughes of Gannett...).

When it was clear that we could talk over their session and they couldn't hear us, we could start cracking wise as if we were back in L.A., doodling as we sat in a back table at press tour.

But we didn't have to stand and leave the ballroom to flee the session. We could just hang up and disappear.

Winter Press Tour 2008, Day 2

No, seriously. Where is everybody?

I know there have been fewer people hanging out at the bars in recent tours, but this is ridiculous.

Winter Press Tour 2008

Well, here I am at the Universal Hilton, ready for press tour.

Wonder where everybody is...

Correcting Impressions on CBS

A couple of things about the new CBS shows this fall: They're not what you think they are.

''The Big Bang Theory,'' for example, looks to be a fresh new comedy from the makers of ''Two and a Half Men'' about a couple of nerds with designs on their hot new neighbor.

But they're not nerds, the show's creators say. Chuck Lorre says he and Bill Prady ''started this out with the goal of writing about remarkable minds -- people that were spectacular in their vision and their ability to see things that we can't see.

''Somehow gets categorized as nerds and geeks and whatnot,'' he says, ''but that's not where we started from.''

Also ''Viva Laughlin,'' its producer says, isn't a musical, though cast members led by Hugh Jackman break into song a couple times an episode.

Rather, producer Bob Lowry says, 'we're a dramatic television show with music.'

Being a musical would require them to use four or five songs an episode, he says. And his characters just don’t go into their numbers at the beginning of the series.

Lowry says he wanted ''to ease the audience into the experience because I wanted them to know the character before they knew the music.''

Hello? Your Show's Delayed

In a marketing advancement that beats last year's egg ads, CBS announced plans to alert viewers whenever their NFL games have overruns, altering start times of their Sunday night shows.

Whenever a show runs long, viewers can be notified through email and text message through the service called CBS Eye-Lert.

This fall, when games look like they’ll run past 7 p.m., viers will be notified at halftime and again at the end of the game the specific start time of shows on the Sunday night lineup – ''60 Minutes,'' ''Viva Laughlin,'' ''Cold Case'' and ''Shark'' that will be delayed , adjusted to specific time zones.

Viewers can register for the free service at Cbs.com, CbsNews.com, SportsLine.com and the new CBSeyeLert.com.

The information will also be up on the CBS.com website. The network is also working with TiVo to quickly adjust schedules on that recording service as well, said George Schweiter, president of the CBS marketing group.

Satisfaction at 75

Rita Moreno has been involved in a few TV series in her half century in show business, but none like ''Cane,'' the saga of sugar cane barons family of Cuban descent in Florida.

''It's the first time, as far as I know, that you will ever see a successful, educated, beautifully dressed, articulate Latino family who don't necessarily talk like this all the time,'' she said, going into an exaggerated Latin accent. ''I can't tell you what that means to me. I'm 75. I've been around a long time now. And if nothing else, I am pleased beyond belief that I actually am going to have gorgeous clothes.''

Also, she says, ''what I love, as a Latina about the show, it has enormous scope. It's definitely epic. It is a saga. It has passion. It is sexy. And what's really going to, I think, turn on a lot of the older people in our generation is that we are a very sexy couple,'' she says indicating Hector Elizondo, who plays her husband. ''And we dance up a storm.''

''I've had to resole my old Capezios now,'' Elizondo says.

''He's a fabulous dancer,'' Moreno says. ''Nobody knows this, but they will.''

The music helps, Elizondo says. ''Anybody who knows anything about Caribbean music, Afro-Cuban music, for a better example, knows that it's the most life-positive music there is. So I'm very excited about that, especially because music is so much a part of my life.''

Producer Jonathan Price, who brought performance to his series ''American Dreams,'' will do the same in ''Cane,'' to play a Miami nightclub that's part of the family business. ''We've been talking to people like Daddy Yankee and Mary J. Blige and Nicole from the Pussy Cat Dolls,'' he says.

''Cane'' starts Sept. 25 on CBS.

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

Funny thing happened during the press session Tuesday for Sci Fi network’s upcoming fantasy remake of “The Wizard of Oz” called “Tin Man.”

Alan Cumming, the Tony-winning Scotsman who plays the variation of the scarecrow named Glitch, was appearing on a screen via London, with Big Ben and Parliament behind him, boats sailing lazily down the Thames.

Then the scene behind him went slate grey.

Then color bars came up. Then a computer menu came up with different scenes. Someone pressed “London” again. And the illusion was back. And he continued to smile from “London” or Studio City or wherever the heck he happened to be.

The Embarrassing One

On hand to talk about his role on BET's upcoming town hall forum “Hip Hop vs. America,” Chuck D was naturally asked about the other member of his group Public Enemy, who happens to be a hit elsewhere on cable.

“I come from a black family, and one thing black folks know, we always got that one in our family,” he said, referring to Flavor Flav, star of “Flavor of Love.”

“But we take them in as family,” he said philosophically. “Jimmy Carter had Billy Carter. You all remember him, right?

"It's just that we outnumber Flav 12-to-one, but you might not draw focus on the other 11 -- and Flav is a one-of-a-kind, believe that. He ain't never ever changed and ain't gonna change. So hopefully," he said, "we'll get 11 guys to have shows that balance out the 'Flavor of Love.' "

The multi-episode "Hip Hop vs. America" runs this fall on BET.

Department of Pioneering TV

Two years ago, “Pioneers of Primetime” was not only a big hit for PBS, its session at press tour was an instant classic, with Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons and Sid Caesar in virtual maelstrom of quotable chaos.

Things were a little more genteel in a press tour session for the next chapter in what is now a series – “Pioneers of Television.” But there still was a little dust-up for the participants, starting with the name.

”Aren't there some other words in the thesaurus besides pioneers?” groused Cavett. “I expected us all to enter in a covered wagon with Daniel Boone makeup on.”

Cavett made his mark as a writer on Jack Paar, whom he called “the most neurotic, dangerous, brilliant, weird, unsorted out, fascinating personality of my lifetime on television.”

Ed McMahon was on the panel representing that historic TV landmark “The Tonight Show,” joined by Tim Conway, who got his start on “The Steve Allen Show”; Betty White, who was the first woman to produce a sitcom, one of the first to host a game show, and helmed a five-hour daily  talk show on TV, before she went on to a career with roles on “Mary Tyler Moore,” “The Golden Girls” and “Boston Legal.”

“My husband, Allen Ludden, always said, ‘My wife was a pioneer in silent television.’ It was kind of close.”

Owing perhaps to the age of the group, two other panelists originally slated to appear, did not. Phyllis Diller did not appear “due to a very serious health issue,” series writer Jack Jones said.

Less expected on such a panel was Tony Orlando, introduced as host of “the first multi-ethnic variety show on television,” who told one of the longest stories of the sessions, about an early run-in with Jackie Gleason.

Mostly, they talked about how things changed in TV over the years.

Delaying 'The War'

TV critics felt they made an impact after a new fall premiere date was announced for Ken Burns’ new PBS documentary "The War."

An earlier date they were looking at, Sept. 17, would have conflicted with all the reporting critics would have to do that week on the commercial network’s premiere week, some complained.

Never mind that the fall TV premiere season hasn’t been a weeklong event in a decade or more, and new shows start trickling out in August and keep trickling until October, the notion that Burns 14 ½ hour, seven part epic would start against, say, the new season of “Desperate Housewives,” was nothing short of insanity, according to a few vocal and quite desperate critics (who were making the mistake, as some often do, as speaking on behalf of every one of us).

Eventually, the date was bumped a week, to start on Sept. 23 in part “because of your important concerns,” PBS Chief Content Officer John Boland told critics in a Jan. 31 e-mail.

But Burns, in town last week to talk about “The War” said it was always going to be the 23rd – because of an important historical date. And the critics' concerns never played into it.