Tag Archives: cancel

HBO cancels ‘How To Make It In America’ & ‘Bored To Death’

News, Television, , , , , , , ,

Just when I thought this TV season was coasting along just fine, this brunt of bad news knocked me unconscious today. HBO has decided to part ways with three of its cult comedies: How To Make It In America, Bored To Death, and Hung. How To Make It only managed to score two seasons before getting the axe, and fans of the show will never get to see if Ben and Cam, well, make it in America as fashion icons with the Crisp brand. They were definitely going places; season 2 managed to top the premiere season in almost every way and still the show was doomed in the end. Also concluding is Jonathan Ames’ Bored To Death starring Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis, and the talented Ted Danson. This series lasted a total of three seasons and rightly deserved many more. What started as a detective-story-of-the-week quickly turned into a more serial adventure exploring the eccentric lives of the title characters. Though I must say, the season three finale thankfully wraps things up and leaves viewers pleasantly satisfied. Why did HBO suddenly feel the urge to clear out its Sunday night lineup? Ratings is to blame, as is usually the case (according to Variety How To Make It and Bored To Death were “down about 25% from their respective previous seasons”), plus the premium cabler is making room for new shows in the pipeline for next year. They did keep one, however. Enlightened starring Lauren Dern is coming back for a second season despite rather dismal ratings. Perhaps the comedy’s recent Golden Globe nomination came into play.

Ben and Cam’s hustle and the zany adventures of Jonathan, Ray, and George have come to an end. Triumphant tears are shed in their honor for making it this far.

[Via Deadline]

‘Locke & Key’ pilot trailer is (probably) all we’ll ever see

News, Television, Video, , , , , , ,

It’s a real shame that FOX passed over Locke & Key, the Joe Hill/Gabriel Rodriguez comic book adaptation from creator Josh Friedman and executive producers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Steven Spielberg. 20th Century Fox TV screened the pilot directed by Mark Romanek at Comic Con, but the cheers simply didn’t prove loud enough for the studio to pass it along to another network. Due to rising production costs and lack of network/cable interest, Locke & Key has been shelved indefinitely and will likely never see the light of day again.

And so I share with you this sneak peek at the pilot that leaked onto the Internet not too long ago. On Twitter Friedman posted a link to the video saying that it “was made by FOX for advertisers months ago (obviously before they decided not to pick us up).” Mirando Otto, Jesse McCartney, Sarah Bolger, Skylar Gaertner, and Nick Stahl star in the haunting promo that successfully hypes the mystical world set forth by Hill and Rodriguez and imagined for TV by Friedman. Though it’s hard to watch because you know the story will never be told on screen, it’s certainly worth viewing so you can at least experience a glimpse of what might have been.

In June Hill had this to say about the premiere episode: “Mark Romanek and Josh Friedman turned in a hell of a good pilot (says a dude who is, of course, completely unbiased). The finished episode is scary, and lean, and emotionally authentic, and has a similar feel to Super 8; it very much has a kind of early 80s scary-Spielberg vibe. It’s also very faithful to the source material. I’m so, so proud of everyone who worked on it and of what was accomplished.”

[Via TVLine]

Fame Kills Tour is dead

Music, News, , , , ,

Well, that didn’t last long.  According to a LiveNation press release, Kanye West and Lady Gaga’s much-hyped Fame Kills Tour has officially been cancelled.  Although no comments have come from the West and Gaga camps, people have been speculating that the cancellation may stem from West’s negative publicity (re: his latest stint at the MTV Video Music Awards), poor early ticket sales, and “creative differences” between the two headlining artists.  A Lady Gaga choreographer LaurieAnn Gibson Twittered that the cancellation was due to such “creative differences.”  Also, Kanye had mentioned on The Jay Leno show that he wanted to take a much needed break from the tours and the albums; maybe this is his way of actually proving his point.

Refunds are available at the point of purchase, and if you purchased tickets online or on the telephone they will be refunded automatically.  Also, according to the tour website, the Club membership fee will be refunded, too.  Details on this will be made available “shortly.”

Update: Lady Gaga has commented on the cancellation today, though she did not go into much detail.  “Well, actually, it was a mutual decision to cancel the tour.  But I’m not taking any time off, so I’ll be leaving just a week later than I was supposed to on my own solo tour. It will be the same places. So I will see you guys there. I’m putting out my re-release as well — The Fame Monster on November 24.  In respects to the creative work that [Kanye and I] did together, I won’t be doing any of the things that we designed for the tour.  It will be entirely new, and it will be just as amazing and memorable and epic.”

[Via MTV, here & here; Canada.com]