On Addiction and 'Nashville's' Character Assassination of Deacon...

Nashville already had the always-struggling, tragic addict character in Juliette's mother Jolene. Her final fall off the wagon may have been to save her daughter the trauma of yet another public scandal and therefore been her first truly selfless act, but it was still an act of giving into her disease. Deacon, on the other hand, was always a pillar of strength, a symbol of hope for anyone feeling like Jolene, that you could pull yourself out of the spiral. He was a symbol of success in a situation not many survive. He was hope, all wrapped up in a pretty package. And the events of the season finale left us with no hope at all.

 

It is said that things become cliches because they are so widely true, and when it comes to primetime soap opera season finales, the cliches are always pregnancies, possible deaths, and long-suffering characters unable to keep it together. While it felt absolutely real that if something was going to knock Deacon off his sobriety wagon, it was the realization that the love of his life had kept a major secret from him and kept him from being a dad for so many years. But the way events actually played out within the episode, it felt too "TV easy" that he should be triggered so quickly and so permanently. It didn't feel like his emotions drove that story but rather that the writers desperately wanted to explode the plot-- and his character-- and did so, regardless of whether it felt right in the moment or not.

Deacon has had a handle on his sobriety for thirteen years. We all know (because the show told us so) that he was a terrible drunk before, a slave and completely different person once he was under the influence. But he had weathered so many terrible things, including temptation, access, and personal strife, and still stayed clean. And though this terrible secret initially came to him from someone other than Rayna, he was strong and smart enough to go directly to her with it right after learning to find out if it was really true. Deacon was clean and sober when he confronted her in the CMA dressing room; therefore even if he was angry enough not to listen to her reason, he was still clear-headed enough to reason with himself. He wasn't under the influence yet.

All season long, it seemed like Deacon was a role model because of how he got a handle on his issues and could now pay it forward to help those like Jolene. Yes, we saw him struggle with the decision to take the first drink-- briefly-- so it wasn't like he was defrauding us all along. But it just felt too brief; he just seemed too willing to throw it all away. It came out of nowhere. That's unequivocally true of most triggers for most addicts-- it lends itself to just how human and therefore susceptible he really is-- but it left me feeling like the show was betraying the specific character they had created.

I was personally hoping Nashville would keep Deacon clean and pure, I can't deny that. I was hoping, for once, there'd be a positive example of someone who had truly survived addiction on-screen. It may not provide the most salacious drama, but Nashville has a dozen other characters for that. I don't think the drama suffers if you have one character who can struggle but ultimately choose to stay positive, even when everyone else around him is falling. They had something really rare with the Deacon they created, even though they often chose to focus on his external love life than his internal struggle. And honestly, if his internal struggle was still great all these years later, then we should have been let in on it; we should have been allowed to get in his head and understand him; the emotional impact of what happened would have been that much greater. Instead, it just felt like a typical season finale attempt to blow up characters and situations and leave us with a cliffhanger. It didn't feel completely earned.

My response to it might have been different if Deacon and Rayna were in a different place in their relationship when he learned this fact, but they were finally together again, and he was happy. Or so we were supposed to believe. Maybe the real lesson here is a guy like Deacon can never really be happy; that addicts will self-sabotage at any chance they get. But I don't want to believe that because it's an extremely pessimistic way to go through life, not to mention the fact that the show never set that up. Deacon, as we got to know him over the course of the full first season, was flawed, and he would always have his demons, but he had found a way to control them, and he was a positive example for anyone (including Jolene and the audience) who had struggled. 

 

It is also said that addicts are extremely good liars. They are often able to charm or otherwise con people into thinking they're okay when really they're just functioning alcoholics. We saw a glimpse of this in Deacon when he woke up to find Coleman still looking after him; he told him what he knew Coleman needed to hear to get him off his back, but he said it in a way that even a guy who had been where he was now would believe it. Does it add a richness to Charles Esten's performance to see these new sides and layers to Deacon? Absolutely, but I feel it's at the expense of the strength of Deacon's character, and that just makes me, personally, exponentially sad. We always knew he was an addict, but we had no reason to believe he was weak. 

I wanted to end this post with the words of Tyra Banks, but I realize now that it's not truly appropriate to do so. We weren't rooting for Deacon in the sense that is implied by her aggressive and insanely GIF-able America's Next Top Model outburst because we had been led to believe he was okay. He had come through the other side relatively unscathed; he had put the pieces of his life back together; now we just related to him but didn't necessarily worry about him. Nashville's season finale pulled that rug right out from under us, though. Whether he walks away from that car crash without a scratch (as drunks so often do) or whether it's the wake-up call that works this time doesn't even matter. Ten minutes of weakness undid all of the greatness the previous 21 and a half episodes gave us of this man. The disease won. It took down one of the best, most resolved men to ever fight with it. Maybe that's the most important message this show is putting forth about addiction after all, but it's not one we feel good about sharing with anyone wondering whether or not they can beat this thing.

From LA Examiner: Critics' Choice & Teen Choice TV Nominees; 'Bonnie & Clyde' Photos; Chris Zylka Heads to 'Twisted'; CBS Orders 'Bad Teacher'...

"The 3rd annual Critics' Choice Television Award nominees are..."

The Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA) today announced nominations for the 3rd annual Critics’ Choice Television Awards, which will be held the evening of Monday, June 10, 2013 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel right here in Los Angeles. For the first time the award show will be webcast live on UStream... [MORE]

"First Look: Emile Hirsch & Holliday Grainger in Bonnie & Clyde"

A&E, Lifetime, and the History Channel are teaming up to for Bonnie & Clyde, a new two-night original miniseries about the real life criminal couple, simulcasting the production on all three networks later in the year. But today the networks have released the first look images from the series, timed on purpose to coincide with the anniversary of the real life Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow's deaths. Holliday Grainger and Emily Hirsch embody the roles, respectively... [MORE]


"2013 Teen Choice nominees include Arrow, PLL, Supernatural, TVD, more"

The annual Teen Choice awards are back, and the first wave of nominees has just been announced. Once again, the ceremony will break into summer, celebrating the hottest teen icons in all pop culture categories (music, movies, TV, sports, fashion, comedy, and the web), and already fans ages 13-19 can begin the voting process... [MORE] 



"The Secret Circle's Chris Zylka gets Twisted on ABC Family"

Chris Zylka has booked a guest starring role on the new ABC Family drama Twisted, per series star Maddie Hasson. LA TV Insider Examiner was on the Los Angeles set today for the filming of the seventh episode, in which Zylka's character takes Hasson's character on a date of sorts... [MORE]




"CBS orders Bad Teacher starring Ari Graynor"

 
CBS has ordered the single-camera comedy Bad Teacher for the 2013-2014 season, the network announced today, a week after unveiling their fall television schedule... [MORE]

The Day Matthew Ashford Talked Me Out of Wanting to Work in Daytime Television...

Once upon a time I wanted to work for Days of our Lives. Not daytime television but specifically that show. I thought about writing for it, but mostly I wanted to direct. There was a theater element to their four-camera set-up that intrigued me, as a kid who really only had access to theater. I student directed what I could in high school, running home as fast as possible to watch that day's VHS-taped episode of DOOL to study the stories and the angles and the inflections. I went to as many fan events as I could to meet the actors, both in the tri-state area and flying out west to go to them, including taking the NBC studio tour to visit the set. And when it came my turn to write and direct original projects in my high school video production class, as well as the Summer Discovery course, I came up with original soap opera scenes. What led me to the show originally was a lineage-- my mother watched the show with her mother when she was recently in the hospital and then came home hooked, asking me to tape it for her while she was at work, so then I'd end up sitting and watching, too, in the evenings. But it was a combination of factors that clicked to make me stick with it.

My senior year at USC was full of electives, and my favorite one, hands down, was a course dedicated to looking at various fandoms. Up until that point, the majority of my personal experience still came from the fandom of Days of our Lives, and I eagerly decided to do a documentary for my thesis project in the class. I was always the kind who would prefer to do something creative to writing a paper (in high school I was happy to write a 100+ page original screenplay for my English thesis, instead of a typical, straightforward 20-page research paper), and we had just screened Trekkies anyway. I was fascinated by how much of what an audience gets out of Trekkies completely depends on what they project onto the people while watching. If they don't understand fandoms or think sci-fi (or anything fictional, really) is a waste of time, they think these people are nuts. If they understand such passion, they look upon them fondly, as peers, even if they aren't Star Trek fans personally. I wanted to explore that, but I also wanted to see it from the other side and talk to the people behind the show about what it meant to have such dedicated fans.

I was in my senior year at USC in 2005, a time when soap operas were on the cusp of changing because new technology was emerging rapidly and the way television was consumed in general was changing. I was kind of oblivious to how all of the changes were affecting production and publicity, though, because I was still a student, only interning, not too worried about having to change my own habits just yet. I consider myself a fan of most new technology but absolutely a late adopter. I want to make sure something will stick around before I jump on a bandwagon (not to mention drop hundreds of dollars to upgrade equipment or transfer titles-- anyone remember the MiniDisc fiasco of the late '90s?). There was something of a beautiful simplicity, at least to me, in the way soap operas operated, drawing on nostalgia and old-fashioned ways. Of course, if you're on the business side of things, the quaint nature of nostalgia is actually death because you can blink and get cast aside as archaic or otherwise unnecessary.

I traveled all over Los Angeles for my documentary on Days of our Lives fan culture, including hitting a local mall for an appearance by of the shows' stars, a park to interview a fan on neutral territory, even a couple of apartments-- of fans and stars alike. But by far the greatest, and most educational, interview came from driving through the NBC studio gates to interview Matthew Ashford, who had recently returned to the show as Jack Deveraux. 

Ashford was in the middle of shooting scenes from "the island" when I arrived, so a helpful PA led me to the kitchen area to wait for the bell to ring, signifying the end of his scene so he could greet me and bring me to his dressing room. It took no time at all, and I was able to watch what they were shooting on the monitors while I set up my camera and looked over my list of interview bullet-points. He came to get me immediately as they wrapped him, his shoulders dusted with white ash and dirt to age his blue button-down and distinguish it as an item that had seen hard times while his character was stranded. He didn't change out of it for the interview, which we both felt added to the texture of the shot, and he graciously answered everything I asked with thoughtful, scholarly commentary. He was clearly a pro at these types of softball interviews, and as I was dismantling the camera, he sat with me to talk a bit more openly and off-the-record (in hindsight, I wish I had still been rolling because that video would be priceless to add to this memory now).

Ashford asked me point-blank why I wanted to be involved in daytime. He was one of the rare actors from the current cast who had been on the show years earlier but had not been on when I obsessively studied the show and attended all of those fan events. We had only met once, a few months earlier, at the final fan event I had attended and at which I obtained a bunch of contact information for people to feature in this documentary. Then he and I had interacted briefly enough so I could take a photo with him, but when I pitched him the interview, I didn't remind him of that brief moment, nor did I expect him to remember me. So our interview was really the first time we had "met" and shared a real interaction.

He listened attentively while I gave him the shortened spiel of how I felt a connection to the style and was inspired by the message of family driven into the stories. The duplicity of so many of the characters fascinated me, I explained, and I wanted to be able to explore flawed people who over time would have situations and relationships dictate their ever-changing behavior, but that even when they were outright villains, there would always be people hoping to see the best in them, to forgive, and to give them another chance. It was a commentary on human nature in a grown-up fairytale kind of way. I talked a bit about how structurally I used Days of our Lives scripts to learn proper formatting when writing my own original screenplays and how the intricacies of reaction shots reminded that a performance can be more powerful without words at times, too.

Ashford seemed satisfied with my answer, but he didn't hesitate in responding when I was done speaking. I had just locked my camera case and steadied it upright against the doorframe. He shifted comfortably in his chair, looked me dead in the eye, and said: "Don't go into daytime." 

To say I was shocked would have been an understatement. Ashford was nothing if not extremely nice throughout our interview, but I was not naive enough to think that he wasn't holding back some of the more outrageous stories he had simply because he didn't want to make anyone look bad. I was a girl with a camera and a microphone and an agenda. Maybe, had I actually kept the camera rolling, he never would have been as candid as he proceeded to be with me. And for that, I'm glad I turned it off and tucked it safely away. Because what he said was something I needed to hear.

"The business is changing..." Ashford pointed out, talking about the ever-increasing pace at which those producing a five-day-a-week show were required to work. 

He noted that there were no breaks, no time to rehearse, more and more pages to produce a day, all with the same beats and notes repeated. It was a business, churning out quantity, and the quality continued to suffer. It was a routine, and a way to exercise a muscle, but it was not a way to get better.

"...and daytime is a dying medium."

He was right, of course. Creativity aside, even the business of daytime was changing as ratings for the number one shows plummeted and networks started canceling even the longest-running programs. Yes, today soaps are getting resurrected online, but it's not the same. He saw the start to the sad trend, and he was warning me, a representative of the new generation, to not devote my time, energy, and most productive years of my life to something that could cast me out, that ultimately came with more risk than reward. 

Or maybe he was testing me, to see if I was really up for the grueling schedule and uphill climb that only looks glamorous if you have no idea how hard you will have to work. I always knew how hard these people worked, and I thought I wanted to be a part of it anyway-- mostly because I was chasing that sense of family that the characters had and that select groups of the actors seemed to have carved out, as well. Maybe I should have taken his words as a challenge to prove that you could infuse new excitement, new energy, new ideas over time. But I didn't. Instead, I took them to heart. Suddenly, standing in his tiny, non-windowed, kind of institutionalized dressing room, things looked differently. I felt like I was chasing the past, and what I really needed to be doing was taking a flying leap into not only my future, but the future of the industry, as well.

Of course, diving into the entertainment business at all meant devoting my time, energy, and most productive years of my life to something that could cast me out, that ultimately came with more risk than reward. But that's a larger version of that same lesson-- and one I had to learn for myself.

DanielleTBD's 2013 TV Round-Up of Survivals, Deaths, and New Shots...

What shows from the 2012-2013 television season have survived to see new episodes in 2013-2014? And what new series will be debuting soon? I have created a hand-dandy round-up, by network, of what to expect. Click on the show titles for more information.

• ABC

666 Park Avenue - Cancelled
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - New Order
The Bachelor - Renewed
Back in the Game - New Order
Betrayal - New Order 
Body of Proof - Cancelled
Castle - Renewed 
Dancing with the Stars - Renewed 

Don't Trust The B---- in Apartment 23 - Cancelled
Family Tools - Cancelled
The Goldbergs - New Order
Grey's Anatomy - Renewed 
Happy Endings - Cancelled 
How to Live with Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life) - Cancelled
Killer Women - New Order
Last Man Standing - Renewed

Last Resort - Cancelled 
Lucky 7 - New Order
Malibu Country - Cancelled
The Middle - Renewed
Mind Games - New Order
Mixology - New Order 
Modern Family - Renewed
Nashville - Renewed 
The Neighbors - Renewed
Once Upon A Time - Renewed 
Once Upon A Time in Wonderland - New Order 

Private Practice - Ended
The Quest - New Order
Red Widow - Cancelled (but ten to one they try to make it seem like it was always a miniseries)
Resurrection - New Order 
Revenge - Renewed
Scandal - Renewed 
Shark Tank - Renewed
Suburgatory - Renewed
Super Fun Night - New Order
Trophy Wife - New Order

Zero Hour - Cancelled 

 

• CBS

2 Broke Girls - Renewed

The Amazing Race - Renewed
Bad Teacher - New Order

Blue Bloods - Renewed 

The Big Bang Theory - Renewed 
Crazy Ones - New Order
Criminal Minds - Renewed

CSI - Renewed
CSI: NY - Cancelled

Elementary - Renewed  
Friends with Better Lives - New Order
Golden Boy - Cancelled

The Good Wife - Renewed

Hawaii Five-0 - Renewed
Hostages - New Order

How I Met Your Mother - Renewed
Intelligence - New Order

The Job - Cancelled

Made in Jersey - Cancelled

The Mentalist - Renewed

Mike & Molly - Renewed
The Millers - New Order
Mom - New Order

NCIS - Renewed

NCIS: LA - Renewed   

Partners - Cancelled 

Person of Interest - Renewed    
Reckless - New Order
Rules of Engagement - Cancelled

Survivor - Renewed

Two and a Half Men - Renewed

Undercover Boss - Renewed  
Vegas - Cancelled
We Are Men - New Order 

• The CW

The 100 - New Order 
90210 - Ended 
America's Next Top Model - Renewed

Arrow - Renewed

Beauty and the Beast - Renewed
The Carrie Diaries - Renewed

Cult - Cancelled

Emily Owens, M.D. - Cancelled

Gossip Girl - Ended

Hart of Dixie - Renewed
The Originals - New Order 
Nikita - Renewed
Reign - New Order 
Star-Crossed - New Order 

Supernatural - Renewed
Tomorrow People - New Order

The Vampire Diaries - Renewed 

• FOX

24 - Renewed for Limited Series order
Almost Human - New Order

American Dad - Renewed
American Idol - Renewed

Ben & Kate - Cancelled

Bob's Burgers - Renewed 

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - New Order
The Cleveland Show - Cancelled 

Dads - New Order 

Enlisted - New Order

Family Guy - Renewed

The Following - Renewed

Fringe - Ended 

Gang Related - New Order

Glee - Renewed
Hell's Kitchen - Renewed
Junior Masterchef - New Order
Masterchef - Renewed

The Mindy Project - Renewed 

The Mob Doctor - Cancelled
Murder Police - New Order 

New Girl - Renewed 

Raising Hope - Renewed  

Rake - New Order

The Simpsons - Renewed 

Sleepy Hollow - New Order 

Surviving Jack - New Order
Touch - Cancelled

Us and Them - New Order
Wayward Pines - New (Limited Series) Order

The X Factor - Renewed 

• NBC 

30 Rock - Ended

1600 Penn - Cancelled

About a Boy - New Order

Animal Practice - Cancelled 

Believe - New Order 
The Biggest Loser - Renewed
Blacklist - New Order 
The Celebrity Apprentice - Renewed 

Chicago Fire - Renewed
Chicago PD - New Order
Community - Renewed

Crisis - New Order 
Crossbones - New Order

Deception - Cancelled

Do No Harm - Cancelled
Dracula - New Order

The Family Guide - New Order 
Food Fighters - New Order
Go On - Cancelled 

Grimm - Renewed
Guys with Kids - Cancelled 
Ironside - New Order

Law & Order: SVU - Renewed

The Michael J. Fox Show - New Order 
The New Normal - Cancelled
Night Shift - New Order  

The Office - Ended

Parenthood - Renewed 

Parks and Recreation - Renewed

Revolution - Renewed
Rock Center - Cancelled

Sean Saves The World - New Order
Smash - Cancelled
Undateable - New Order
Up All Night - Cancelled 

The Voice - Renewed 
Welcome to the Family - New Order

Whitney - Cancelled 

• TBA

The Bachelorette (ABC)
Betty White's Off Their Rockers (NBC)
Fashion Star (NBC)
Kitchen Nightmares (FOX)

Hannibal (NBC)

From LA Examiner: 'Arrested Development' Netflix Format; Heather Locklear on 'Franklin & Bash' Photos; 'Motive' Advance Review...

"Arrested Development to break new ground on Netflix"

And now the story of a television show before its time and how, seven years later, they’re still breaking ground. It’s Netflix’s Arrested Development. Mitch Hurwitz’s iconic but sadly short-lived comedy series center on a selfish, spoiled Orange County family had “blood in the water” pretty much from the start of its first thirteen episode season. At least that’s how series star Jason Bateman put it, pointing out that the show was always designed to feature a long, dense trail of breadcrumbs to carefully tell each story in an “exaggerated…style and tone” that audiences either loved it or hated it right off the bat. For the record, Bateman did follow up to note that he personally thinks “one of its strengths is that it’s very specific and it makes a choice"... [MORE]


"First Look: Heather Locklear joins the Franklin & Bash team"

Everyone's favorite scheming diva is coming to TNT's Franklin & Bash! Heather Locklear joins the third season of the legal buddy series as Infeld & Daniels' new partner. She's a bad-ass trial lawyer who has no problems getting right in the faces of our titular "outside of the box" lawyers (Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer). In fact, her Rachel King wouldn't mind taking them down a few notches or out of the company altogether because she doesn't see them as serious or good at their jobs... [MORE] 

"Summer 2013 TV Preview: ABC's Motive"

Don’t get it twisted: just because ABC’s Motive tells the audience who the killer is before they even show you the victim doesn’t mean everything about the show isn’t a procedural. Sure, there’s just enough of a gimmick with this one to trick audiences into thinking they’re getting a fresh new take on typical tales of crime, but when you strip the series and its non-linear, multiple narrator style down, it’s the same ole, same old... [MORE]

Childhood Lessons on Art from 'The Baby-Sitters Club'...

I remember none of the lessons they were supposed to teach in school as vividly as something I read in a "Baby-sitters Club" novel.

Claudia (the artistic one) was given an assignment in her own school to draw a self-portrait. She was never a good student, but art was her favorite class, her biggest outlet, and her number one hobby, next to baby-sitting, of course. She should have excelled there if not for her talent but her sheer passion. 

 

Claudia chose to draw a butterfly for her self-portrait assignment. It was her depiction of herself because how she felt and how she saw herself: a free spirit, just like that butterfly was free to fly around. In many ways, you could argue it was also because like that butterfly who had to beat its little wings against the cocoon until it broke free to be free, Claudia, too, had to overcome adversity. She was in the shadow of her big, brainy sister; she was a Japanese-American living in a predominantly white community; she struggled with feelings of misunderstanding and aloneness inside her traditional and strict family. 

But Claudia's teacher didn't see it that way. She wanted a traditional self-portrait: a picture of a face. Maybe a body, too, if you were feeling extra adventurous. This wasn't art therapy class; this was public school art class. Claudia received a bad grade on the assignment, and her grandmother had to step in and yell at the teacher, pointing out the immense creativity that went into such a design.

Interestingly, the book I am reading now has a similar story from the narrator's childhood. In "The Woman Upstairs," Nora always wanted to be an artist but her life took her in another direction. She, too, once felt misunderstood and alone within her family, wanting something they didn't seem to (don't all artists?). She, too, recounts a story from art class when the assignment was to put a bee inside a violin inside a pear, and everyone in class merely sketched that, while she built a model out of paper mache, gold ribbons, and an actual, asphexiated bee. She didn't get in trouble for it, though; her teacher acknowledged the true originality, uniqueness, and beauty in her design. It should have been the first step towards her inevitable success in that field, whereas for Claudia, I wouldn't have been surprised if the rejection of her piece from someone who was in a position of authority and power about art sent her in the opposite direction, and she retracted, following the rules and keeping her big ideas to herself. Of course, "The Baby-sitters Club" books were for kids, made to teach lessons, sure, but ultimately lift them up and teach them they could do anything to which they set their minds.

How you reacted to Claudia's drawing as a kid reading the books said a lot about you and the lessons being hammered into your own head from teachers or family members or even friends about expressing yourself. It could also say a lot about the adult you would grow up to become, as well. How you react to "The Woman Upstairs" now tells you exactly the kind of adult you have become. Hopefully there is not a great discrepancy in between.

I remember reading the story and being in awe of and immensely impressed by Claudia. Claudia was thinking outside of the box; she was a true artist. It wasn't that I would have been afraid to play with the parameters of the assignment (I proved to do that on a couple of occasions as it was), but it never crossed my mind to interpret a self-portrait assignment any other way than the literal "draw your face" design that her teacher so clearly wanted. I was probably eight or nine when I read this book, the time when I was first deciding I wanted to be a writer-- to tell stories for a living-- and I hadn't considered any other side to that assignment. In fact, in the passages when she described creating her self-portrait, I remember thinking she was bound to get in trouble because "that wasn't the assignment." I inherently understood the rigidness of minor authority figures like teachers and their desire to teach to tests rather than cultivate uniqueness. In fact, "That's not the assignment" has become a running joke I regularly yelled at television characters ever since-- sometimes even to this day. I did it in my head with "The Woman Upstairs," and in all honesty, if Nora's teacher, too, had said such a thing, it might have made a more palatable story. It would have explained why she never became the great artist she so desired and which childhood stories tell us we all can be. Instead, though, it would become clear that Nora herself got in her own way and distracted from her dreams-- something few stories like to share but ends up happening to most of us.

It happened to me.  

Though this part of Claudia's story always stuck with me, I wish I had actively taken it to heart more than I actually did during my formative years. I have said before that I don't think you can teach someone to be a true artist; it's something they just have to be born to be; but that doesn't mean you can't coax and massage greatness out of someone or some situation nonetheless. I tend to remember this anecdote-- something that became just a footnote in the character's life after hundreds of books, some dolls, and a movie-- only in hindsight, only after I missed an opportunity to do something really original or unique and realized it. It's something I've been thinking about a lot lately, though, and maybe stumbling onto "The Woman Upstairs" now is meant to be a reminder of such things. It's never too late for a teachable moment.

From LA Examiner: The CW's Fall 2013 Schedule; More 'The Originals' Photos; USA Finally Orders Comedy Series; 'Nikita's' Final Season Details...

"The CW announces 2013-2014 primetime television schedule"

Fall 2013 television schedules are being finalized all over the industry this week, with networks making their programming plans public to advertisers and press alike during the annual upfront presentations in New York City. This is only the first parade the networks will do with their talent, to showcase the future of their shows and tell us to get on board. The CW was the final network to make their announcements, and they made some surprising moves and created one night dedicated to the Amell boys... [MORE]


"The Originals to launch its own night of programming on The CW in Fall 2013" 

As previously reported, The CW ordered The Originals to series on April 26 2013 after the back-door pilot aired the previous night, as fourth season episode of The Vampire Diaries. While we all know that in that series, Klaus (Joseph Morgan) returns to New Orleans to reclaim his city and square off against former protege Marcel (Charles Michael Davis), now we have a little bit more about the series, including the fact that it has received an 8 p.m. time slot. Typically networks allow their strong returning series to kick off the hours and nights, letting new shows gain momentum and an audience by retaining some of the lead-ins audience. The CW has always been a bit of a rebel in this arena, though, most recently launching genre series The Vampire Diaries and Arrow at the start of the night and to great success. And they are putting that same faith in The Originals... [MORE]


"USA finally gets in the comedy game, orders Sirens and Playing House"

A few years ago the USA network declared it would be getting in the half-hour comedy game. They picked up a series called Paging Dr. Freed, and then nothing ever happened. They continued to churn out "bright skies dramas," each with a hint of quirk developed into their characters, but they did not put anything less than an hour on air. Then earlier this year things changed. They acquired the syndication rights to ABC's Modern Family. Suddenly, we had to sit up and pay attention. Something would have to be paired with it, right? But would it be an original or another series they would be rerunning? Today we have the answer. USA held their annual upfront presentation and ordered two new half-hours to series: Sirens from Denis Leary and Playing House from BFFs' Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair... [MORE] 


"Nikita to conclude with six-episode season 4 in 2013-2014"

Though The CW renewed Nikita, starring Maggie Q, Lyndsy Fonseca, and Shane West for their 2013-2014 television line-up, it did not make it onto the fall schedule. Instead the cult espionage series will come back "later in the fall," with the conclusion of its drama in a tight, six-episode season designed to "give fans closure," per network president Mark Pedowiz... [MORE]