CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.
ABC
TV News: Full Seasons Ordered For ‘Once Upon a Time,’ ‘Happy Endings,’ ‘Last Man Standing’
Submitted by BrianTT on November 4, 2011 - 3:21pmCHICAGO – ABC made some TV viewers very happy this week when they announced that two of their new shows and one of their almost-new shows would be on until at least May 2012 with full-season orders for “Once Upon a Time,” “Last Man Standing,” and “Happy Endings.” This brings the total of new programs given a full-season order to a remarkable 13. While few of the programs are what could be called breakout hits, there’s no denying that this freshman class has been pretty strong.
Blu-Ray Review: ‘V: The Complete Second Season’ Fails to Save Sci-Fi Reboot
Submitted by mattmovieman on October 27, 2011 - 7:14amCHICAGO – After two increasingly rocky seasons, ABC’s soulless reboot of Kenneth Johnson’s ’80s miniseries and subsequent TV show “V” was finally cancelled. It ended the sci-fi serial on a tragic cliffhanger that was very much in keeping with the show’s status as a muddled downer. Though some fans have signed petitions to get the show renewed on a different network, it’s doubtful that “V” will garner a large audience outside of Comic Con conventions.
TV News: ABC’s ‘Once Upon a Time’ Premieres With Solid Sunday Night Ratings
Submitted by TimBMartens on October 24, 2011 - 3:45pmCHICAGO – ABC and the creators of lost may have another hit on their hands. The new drama series “Once Upon a Time.” The new series, which premiered last night, stood as the top dog in non-sports programs on Sunday night, bringing in an impressive 12.8 million viewers when premiering against Sunday Night Football and Game 4 of the World Series.
TV Review: ABC’s ‘Once Upon a Time’ Gets ‘Lost’ in Faerie Tale Land
Submitted by mattmovieman on October 23, 2011 - 8:27amCHICAGO – With two “Snow White” films currently in production, it’s tempting to believe that Hollywood’s well of originality has run dry. Sure, faerie tales have always been reinterpreted for new generations, but how many re-imaginings does one generation need?
TV Review: ABC’s Abysmal ‘Man Up’ Inspires Hatred of Mankind
Submitted by mattmovieman on October 18, 2011 - 7:15amCHICAGO – What can be said about “Man Up” that wasn’t already said about “Last Man Standing”? Neither show has the slightest shred of insight into the mind of modern man. They appear to have been conceived by network executives who hate men with a fiery passion. How else to explain the thoroughly insulting, utterly asinine portraits of masculine arrested development?
TV News: ABC Cancels ‘Charlie’s Angels’
Submitted by BrianTT on October 14, 2011 - 4:21pmCHICAGO – Well, that didn’t take long. Joining “The Playboy Club,” “Free Agents,” and “How to Be a Gentleman” in the hallowed halls of cancellation is ABC’s “Charlie’s Angels,” a show that never found an audience and watched the few who did sample it turn away in the week’s after its premiere. ABC followed their full-season orders for “Revenge” and “Suburgatory” yesterday with the announcement of the cancellation of “Charlie’s Angels” today.
TV News: ABC Orders Full Seasons of ‘Revenge,’ ‘Suburgatory’
Submitted by BrianTT on October 14, 2011 - 12:38pmCHICAGO – Does ABC actually have a pair of new hits on their hands? Unable to find a freshman success last year with disasters like “The Whole Truth” and “My Generation,” the network has a much happier story to tell this year as a a few of their programs have not exactly set the TV world on fire but delivered solid numbers. Two such programs are on Wednesday nights as the net gave full-season orders to sitcom “Suburgatory” and guilty pleasure “Revenge” after this week’s ratings.
TV News: Tim Allen’s ‘Last Man Standing’ Opens With Strong Ratings
Submitted by BrianTT on October 12, 2011 - 10:41amCHICAGO – Critics may have been cruel but audiences were curious enough to see what Tim Allen’s “Home Improvement” schtick looks like in 2011, sampling the series premiere of ABC’s “Last Man Standing” to the tune of a solid 3.5 rating in the key 18-49 demo. Last year, “No Ordinary Family” opened in the time slot with a 3.2 rating and it’s worth nothing that the baseball game on FOX ate into every other network, especially with younger viewers, so there’s reason to believe that the numbers would have otherwise been higher.
DVD Review: ‘Happy Endings: The Complete First Season’ Assembles Fine Cast
Submitted by mattmovieman on October 12, 2011 - 7:21amCHICAGO – With so many laughless sitcoms premiering this season on ABC, it’s tempting to overpraise a show that actually manages to be funny. “Happy Endings” has already received a good deal of praise from Hollywood Chicago for its top-notch ensemble and vibrantly witty banter, though it’s not quite in the same league as the shows it wishes to emulate, particularly “Friends” and “Arrested Development.”
TV Review: Tim Allen Sinks to Idiocy & Beyond in ‘Last Man Standing’
Submitted by mattmovieman on October 11, 2011 - 7:27amCHICAGO – There’s something inherently unmanly about the need to prove one’s own manliness. What passes for virility in the mind of Mike Baxter (Tim Allen) is clearly masking a deep well of insecurity. He never passes up an opportunity to prove that he is, in fact, a man.