Emmys be damned: TV critics pick the winners

Members of the Television Critics Association or TCA (the full-time ones, the ones with travel budgets, not that I’m bitter) are gathered in Los Angeles as the networks and cable outlets preview their fall season programming slates.

And, as usual, they take advantage of the gathering and amassed Hollywood talent to hand out their annual awards. Battlestar Galactica, ER, Big Bang Theory and Betty White are among the winners this year.

But before you get to the list of winners, below, here are two bits of colour from the weekend: There was a chocolate fountain at the awards, and CBS Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson sent pizza, as well as this note, (with thanks to Alan Sepinwell of the New Jersey Star Ledger for tweeting this)

And now the winners. Which are guaranteed to be more just than the Emmy’s on Sept. 20, based on the nominations.

PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: “Battlestar Galactica” (Syfy)

OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM: “True Blood” (HBO)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: “Mad Men” (AMC)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION: “The Alzheimer’s Project” (HBO)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING: “Yo Gabba Gabba” (Nickelodeon)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES, MINI-SERIES & SPECIALS: “Grey Gardens” (HBO)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: Jim Parsons, “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Bryan Cranston, “Breaking Bad” (AMC)

HERITAGE AWARD: “ER” (NBC)

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: Betty White

– Denise Duguay

TV on DVD coming soon: Dexter, Dollhouse, Dirty Sexy Money, and that’s just the Ds

Lazy days of summer. And a lazy week for distributors of TV on DVD, who have coughed up only a measly few light-weight releases (Reba: Season 6, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern: Collection 3). So I took that as a sign to look at what’s ahead. I’ll post a link to this post at the top  of the page and try to keep it updated.

JUNE
Eastbound and Down: Season 1, June 30
Eureka: Season 3.0, June 30
Entourage: The Complete Fifth Season, June 30

JULY
Mad Men: Season 2, July 14
ER: Season 11, July 14
Prison Break: The Final Break, July 21
Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season, July 21
Dollhouse: Season 1, July 28
Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5/Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series (DVD and Blu-ray), July 28
Life on Mars: Series 1 (U.K.), July 28

AUGUST
Flight of the Conchords: Season 2, Aug. 4
Californication: Season 2, Aug. 11
90210 (2.0): The Complete First Season, Aug. 11
Dexter: The Third Season (DVD and Blu-ray), Aug. 18
Gossip Girl: The Complete Second Season, Aug. 18
The Beast: Season 1, Aug. 18
Dirty Sexy Money: The Complete Second Season, Aug. 18
Eli Stone: The Complete Second Season, Aug. 18
Scrubs: The Complete Eighth Season, Aug. 25
House: Season 5, Aug. 25
Lie to Me: Season 1, Aug. 25
Life: Season 2, Aug. 25
NCIS: The Complete Sixth Season, Aug. 25
thirtysomething: The Complete First Season, Aug. 25

SEPTEMBER
Desperate Housewives: The Complete Fifth Season, Sept. 1
Heroes: Season 3 (DVD and Blu-ray), Sept. 1
No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, The Complete First Season, Sept. 1
Two and a Half Men: The Complete Sixth Season, Sept. 1
Fringe: The Complete First Season (DVD and Blu-ray), Sept. 8
Grey’s Anatomy: Season 5, Sept. 15
Private Practice: The Complete Second Season, Sept. 15
The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Second Season, Sept. 15
My Name Is Earl: the Complete Fourth Season (DVD and Blu-ray), Sept. 15
Castle: Season 1, Sept. 22
30 Rock: Season 3
Law & Order: SVU: The 10th Year, Sept. 22
The Mentalist: Season 1, Sept. 22
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Sept. 22
How I Met Your Mother: Season 4, Sept. 29
Life on Mars: The Complete Series (U.S.), Sept. 29

DECEMBER
Lost: Season 5/Lost: The Complete Fifth Season Dharma Initiation Kit (DVD and Blu-ray for both), Dec. 8

With thanks, as every DVD Tuesday, to amazon.ca and tvshowsondvd.com.

– Denise Duguay

TV on DVD: Caprica (almost)

I have GOT to start pulling some strings and muscling publicists into sending me more of those advance DVD review copies. I must. But what with the damn day job and the mother and the intolerable return visit from the cold-flu virus, well … okay the dog ate my DVD review of Caprica, this week’s exclusive DVD-only release of the debut episode of the Battlestar Galactica spinoff. The series will hit Canadian TV’s Space channel in 2010.

I even tried squeezing out a tear in HMV, where the young clerk admitted the goods were in the building. I made my case. That it was for my bedridden mother, whose only solace was quality sci-fi. But she refused, heartless wench. And perhaps I should say that Mother is not bedridden. Just grouchy. And sci-fi does nothing to improve her mood.

And so. I will have a review of Caprica as soon as I am able. Otherwise, I might be tempted to write at great length and with considerable venom about My Own Worst Enemy: The Complete Series and how the ridiculousness of the spy-with-two-warring-personalities plot was matched only by the series’ unwillingness to die a quicker death. Christian Slater, hang your head.

Until then, make do with this list of other DVD releases.

Dallas: The Complete 11th Season
Hawaii Five-O: Season 6
Rhoda: Season 1
My Own Worst Enemy: The Complete Series
Hannah Montana: The Complete First Season
American Experience: A Class Apart
Life of Ryan: The Complete Series
Wolverine and the X-Men: Vol. 1, Heroes Return Trilogy

For those who are about to die (of grief at BSG’s passing) …

I keep telling myself I’m on vacation and yet here I am, ignoring another gorgeous blue sky for the pale blue glow of the computer screen. Frak it. After these five sentences about my beloved Battlestar Galactica — and the 2 skimpy TV on DVD blog posts that I have “post” dated to appear over the next two weeks — I am gone fishin until April 6.

1. Battlestar Galactica wraps up its four-season run Friday, March 20 with a two-hour finale starting at 9 p.m. ET on Space: The Imagination Station, which follows with a live fan forum at 11 p.m. ET which offers “An in-depth chat about the series finale of Battlestar Galactica and the legacy the show leaves behind.”

2. If you are a sometimes fan, you can catch up by watching or recording a repeat of the final run of episodes leading up to Friday’s finale. The marathon starts at 11 a.m. ET Friday on Space.

3. If you don’t know anything about this show, forget about the Friday finale. I’d love to say you should watch and appreciate it for the spectacular head trip/social commentary/inspirational drama that it is. But I am a little lost myself and I think it would just wreck it for a band-wagoneer. Go back to the miniseries that launches the series. It’s worth all four seasons. So say we all.

4. Stop your shaking. The next fix of the BSG universe will come April 21 when Caprica will be released exclusively on DVD. That’s the pilot episode of the series set in the time when the Cylons are created, focussing on the Adama and Greystone families. Esai Morales and Eric Stoltz are among the stars. The full series is set for release sometime in 2010 (Space has not yet committed to the Sci-Fi Channel Syfy Channel series, but we live in hope). On April 21, we’ll get the Caprica series pilot plus a load of extras.

5. Still trembling? Here’s a little something about the post-BSG Cylon-centred movie (bcast date eta) called The Plan. It’s an interview with director and BSG vet Edward James Olmos, courtesy of E! Online.

– Denise Duguay

BSG: The final frontier, but not

Battlestar Galactica returns Friday on Space: The Imagination Station for its final run of 11 new episodes, also known as Season 4.5. If you’re a fan, you already know that. If you’re curious, but think it’s too late to join the game, Space and BSG hope you’ll reconsider by watching a video that gives you all the basics, and then some. Having gone to Space’s excellent website and watched the video of The Top 10 Things You Need to Know, I hope you’ll join the BSG fan nation. And if you’re already a fan — I love this show, but don’t always catch every episode — this video manages to bring you up to speed without the tedious classroom feeling. The Top 10 Things will also be broadcast, old-school-like, at 8:30 p.m. ET tonight on Space (and Saturday at noon and 5 p.m.), right after a day-long marathon of episodes leading up to tonight’s return. (Some episodes are also online if that works better for you cubicle monkeys out there.)

(Olmos and McDonnell in BSG, c/o Space)

Here’s a basic primer that execs Ronald D. Moore and David Eick explain more elaborately in The Top 10 Things: the last human survivors of an attack by the robot Cylons are aboard the BSG, looking first to escape the Cylons, which can take the form of robot Centurions, attack-ship Raiders or humanoids living secretly among the humans. At the same time, BSG’s crews is trying to find the fabled planet Earth. In the final season, the humans have formed an alliance with a Cylon faction. The end of the first half of Season 4 (that would be Season 4.0), Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos), President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) celebrate finding Earth. But what next? And who is the fifth, final humanoid Cylon, the identity of which is being sought by both Cylons and humans?

Again, fans already know this, but you newbies won’t regret the investment — in this video and the final episodes — because the end of BSG is not really the end. After the series wraps up its run, there will be another two-hour prequel called The Plan. It takes place before the Cylon attack that put the series in motion, this time from the perspective of two Cylons. Sci-Fi Channel in the U.S. has commenced production, and estimates a June broadcast, but Space has not yet signed on. Many, many familiar faces from the series. Moore is writing. Olmos is directing.

Wait! There’s more! Caprica is a spin-off series confirmed by the Sci-Fi Channel but not yet by Space. Caprica takes place 50 years before the Cylon attack and focuses on the Adamas and the Graystones as they struggle to keep control of the 12 Colonies and the artificial-intelligence industry. Moore is producer/writer. The cast here includes Esai Morales (NYPD Blue), Eric Stoltz (Gray’s Anatomy), Paula Malcolmson (Deadwood, ER) and Polly Walker (Cane, Rome). Look for this sometime in 2010, assuming Space will deliver. Please Space!
But I’m getting ahead of myself. BSG Season 4.5 is set to launch Friday on Space at 10 p.m. ET. (repeating Sunday at 6 p.m. ET). Here is the link to The Top 10 Things You Need to Know video. Once you’re at Space’s fun site you might not be able to resist clicking around — the last episodes of Season 4.0 on the video player, the Webisodes (Hey? What’s this about a character outing himself?), more interviews with Moore, and other fun stuff.

– Denise Duguay