TBS is continuing their Very Funny slogan with Sullivan & Son tonight at 10p.
Steve Byrne plays a NYC lawyer who comes back home to Pittsburgh for a visit and winds up buying his father’s bar and staying. Now he has to deal with Irish dad (Dan Lauria), his controlling Korean mom (Jodi Long) who his dad met in Vietnam and his younger sister (Vivian Bang) who is happy her big bro is back to take the pressure off of her. But it isn’t only his family he has to deal with, he also the regulars to contend with. Carol (Christine Ebersole) has done everything at the bar and I do mean everything. Owen (Owen Benjamin) who will help Steve out with the bar. And then there is Hank (Brian Doyle-Murray) who has been going to the bar since it opened and he doesn’t like all the changes that has happened to the neighborhood. In other words he is a huge racist and what he says makes you laugh even though it shouldn’t.
Steve will struggle trying to keep bar running, keep the customers happy and most importantly survive his family. All we have to do is struggle not to laugh too hard because this show is hilarious.
Tonight at 9p the final 6 episodes of The Closer begin and you are not going to want to miss a single second of the show. In tonight’s season premiere Brenda might finally have a way to get revenge on her arch nemesis Philip Stroh, but in doing so it will put herself in hot water with the new D.A. Claire Baldwin. Will she cause the problems for Brenda in return.
In the following weeks they will investigate the murders of a Priest and a security guard/war hero, but the biggest death will affect Brenda personally. That death will change everything. Oh and did I mention the leak is finally revealed? Will that person be fired and did you know they were the leak?
Even though I am sad The Closer is ending, it is going out in style that is fitting of this show and for Kyra Sedgwick.
Tonight at 10p TNT asks three teams of two to escape from the inescapable on The Great Escape and you will you be so caught up in the action you won’t be able to escape this show. Each week they will go to a notorious location like Alcatraz and USS Hornet and the teams will have to make it to the end goal to claim the prize of $100.000. They will be locked in a room and will have to find the key that will set them free. Once they are out, they will get a clue to go to the next round and try to break free from that place. There are four rounds, each harder than the last until they finally reach their destination. But it is not as easy as it sounds because there are guards on the look out and if they catch the team on the loose that team has to go back to beginning and start all over again.
The Great Escape is the most thrilling competition show I ever seen. It is such a fast paced hour that you will be exhausted just because you watched it. I love it so much that it is the first reality competition, I actually want to audition for but I won’t because I would totally suck at it.
Last week more people watched Dallas on TNT than they watched anything that same night on the five major networks, so tune into the show tonight at 9p to see why this show stuck ratings oil.
The biggest reason to tune in is that JR Ewing is back. Last week we saw a weakened version of one TV’s biggest villains, but tonight he is just as mean as ever. He will show his son John Ross who is boss in a way only he can, but will it be enough to teach him that oh-so-very-important lesson? And he isn’t the only family member that JR will be messing with tonight, Bobby will also be tricked by his charm. Will the little brother be wise enough to know when is big bro is trying to trick him or will JR finally get what he wants…SouthFork? You have to tune in for an episode that sets up some Ewing drama for the next few episodes of Dallas.
So tonight Larry Hagman really put on that big old JR Ewing cowboy hat, and a few weeks ago I attended a press event where he told us what they had to do to get him to play the role again. He said, “Well, they called and approached me on it about a year ago I guess and I said, ‘Well… I wasn’t sure.’ And then they said, ‘Well, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray are going to be on it.’ And I said, ‘Oh well, okay.’ Then Linda called up. She says, ‘You’re gonna do it,’ and I said, ‘Okay.’ So all it took it was a Ewing family reunion to make it happen.
So once Hagman said he would do it, was it hard to fill those huge cowboy boots again. His response was, “No. Hell, I know the character. He hadn’t changed any. No, I’m very happy with that. They’re writing in that direction, too.” You will see tonight he hasn’t changed and no one is going to complain about that.
Now we know what it was like for Hagman to be part of the drama again, what about his TV wife Linda Gray? It was a little different for her because “it was with a whole new Sue Ellen because she’d been gone for 20 years. She had taken John Ross with her to London with Ian McShane, smart. And so I had to do a lot of homework for Sue Ellen. I had to really find out: Where would she be? Who would she be with? What are her values now? Why did she change? Ws it solid change or is it just surface change? What would she be doing with her new life? So, I did a lots and lots of homework. I took her to lunch. She and I had a lovely Sue Ellen/Linda Gray lunch.”
Now we know how John Ross parents prepared to once again take on the roles that made them international superstars, how did Josh Henderson learn more about the people he would be calling mom and dad. He did his homework for the role, “For me personally, before we shot the pilot—now, I knew of the entire idea of what Dallas was, but I actually was too young to remember the details of the show. So I didn’t have any of the DVDs so I YouTubed everything I could of JR and I quickly became just like everyone else, I think, originally when it was airing, in awe of how he could walk into a room as JR, destroy a man’s life in three sentences with a smile on his face, tip his hat and leave. And I couldn’t believe it. And at that time, I really started to understand that I got to come to some special to play his son because what he did was so amazing that I really had to come up with something good. So, that’s how I studied first. And then finally my mother bought me all the DVDs for Christmas. You know, the original was very racy, too. Like, I wasn’t expecting it.” And it gets really racy for him in the next few weeks.
Finally there is one star on the show that doesn’t get enough credit, it has the same name as the show and that star is Dallas. When asked if they are treated like rock stars in Texas, Linda Gray has this to say “Well, I’ve known them for so many years. I’m not from Texas like Larry and Josh, but I’ve known them. I’ve got great, great year-long relationships with these people, so it’s a different respect. I mean, my fans are older so they’re not treating us like rock stars, but they’re embracing us like family. They’re so happy that after the assassination of President Kennedy, that they had a really bad omen attached to the whole city. So now we came along and it was such a hit. Everybody’s a star in Dallas. You know, they’re all proud. They’re very proud. They’re proud of us because they feel that we opened the doors to get rid of, to erase that tragedy. So they’re all very excited. They’re more than excited to have us come back again.” It’s interesting to see how the show not only changed their lives, but it also changed the cities. Something I am sure none of us ever realized.
And something you don’t want to be the last to realize is just how excellent this show is. So get on your horse and ride yourselves over to your TV at 9p to watch Dallas. I have said it before and I will say it again, this is the best new show of the season so what more do you need to check it out.
Dallas has been off the air since 1991, but tonight at 9p it returns to TV on TNT with a reboot that does the original justice. Unlike other shows that have returned to television, this one includes members from the first shows and picks up with their lives in real time.
Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) still owns SouthFork, but he is going through some rough times and he is thinking of selling it. He is divorced from Pamela Sue and he is now married to the love of his life Ann (Brenda Strong). His adopted son Christopher (Jesse Metcalfe) is grown up and just like him. Christopher left Dallas to look for an alternate source for fuel besides oil and he has returned home to get married to Rebecca Sutter (Julie Gonzolo). So get ready for the first wedding of the series tonight.
So what about the Ewing brother that you love to hate? JR (Larry Hagman) is in a place you would never expect to see him and he is not the man we knew. His son John Ross (Josh Henderson) is a chip off his dad’s block and he trying to strike oil on SouthFork’s land but Bobby won’t have it. He is dating the cook’s daughter Elena Ramos (Jordana Brewster), but before she was with hims she was with his cousin Christopher. Elena was dumped by the good Ewing son on their wedding via email, and the bad one was there to console her. Sue Ellen is single, successful in business and people want her to take a shot at politics.
The Ewings might not sound that exciting by the way I am describing them, but that is because I am leaving out all of the juicy details for you to salivate over. There are so many shocking twists and turns that you will never see any of them coming, but you will enjoying watching each one play out.
Dallas is as much as about the new characters as it is the old ones, and that blend works brilliantly. It’s like time stood still for twenty years and the wheels are beginning to turn again.
Seriously after watching the first seven episodes, I can honestly say this is the best new show of the season and the season is almost over. The new Dallas is as good as the old one and whether you’ve seen the first one or new one will be your first visit to Dallas, you are going to love to the nighttime soap that changed television forever. I think the TNT version is going to do the same. 90210, Hawaii Five-0 and anyone else working on a remake take notice of this show because it is the first one to do it right.
Oh and for fans of the original the opening is the same. Once I saw that, I knew this show was going to be the sh!t and loyal to the original.
