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Lucy Liu's Safety Net: Dirty Sexy Money

BuzzSugar — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:30:01 -0700

It's not like anyone's actually coming right out and saying that Cashmere Mafia is canceled, but let's face it: When the star bails for another show, it's probably not a good sign.

Lucy Liu, most recently seen as Mafia leader Mia, is now in negotiations to star on Dirty Sexy Money. She'd join the cast as a regular character, playing an attorney who may or may not have anything to do with Peter Krause's attorney character, Nick George. Technically, the show would be second priority to Cashmere Mafia — but chances are, Liu's not going to have to worry about that.

I like the idea of Liu on Dirty Sexy Money — lawyer characters seem to be her style (see also: Ugly Betty), and she'll still get to wear fabulous clothes. Plus, maybe she'll be written just a bit sharper than Mia, who always seemed a little too wishy-washy for her own good.

Can you see Liu hobnobbing with the Darlings? And where should the other Cashmere Mafia regulars land if they do have to jump ship? I suppose it's a little late to swap Bonnie Somerville for Lipstick Jungle's Lindsay Price, right? But I could see Frances O'Connor fitting right in on Wisteria Lane . . .

Source

HBO Has Female-Driven Programming On Deck

BuzzSugar — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:31:11 -0700

This year we've seen two network TV shows, Cashmere Mafia and Lipstick Jungle, that have tried to recreate the magic of HBO's Sex and the City, with mixed results. By contrast, HBO itself is moving on, leaving SATC for the big screen and once again developing interesting and unexpected female-driven projects.

Jill Scott and Anika Noni Rose will star in Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella's adaptation of the popular book series the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. The project, about an all-female private detective agency in Botswana, was originally developed as a movie. Variety reports that this story will now be told on the small screen as HBO has ordered 13 episodes of it. If this sounds confusingly similar to another recent female detective project, never fear, I've broken down the differences between the two. As for the other female-led show HBO has on deck, it's a little quirky, so

Rewind: This Week's Buzz

BuzzSugar — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 07:00:00 -0800

The Buzz Book Club officially wrapped up The Other Boleyn Girl this week. What did you all think? Going to see the movie? Next up: Revolutionary Road!
In case you missed it (and a lot of people did) the Oscars gave us a lot of wonderful moments and a few surprises. You can see a 60-second version of the show here, and I also researched what's next for this year's big winners.
Time to play casting director: Who would you recast as Will Hunting and who would you cast as you in a movie?
This week in music videos we learn that Jack McBrayer is Mariah's love slave, Jay-Z likes his cinematography dark, and Willie Nelson is still tight with Jessica Simpson.
American Idol is picking up speed and already we're down to 16. I think the boys need to step it up this week and it's time for those talented girls to pick some great songs and show us what they've got, don't you?
NBC ordered more episodes of Lipstick Jungle, though we haven't heard a peep about the fate of Cashmere Mafia.
Adorable indie duo alert!: Zooey Deschanel and Paul Dano are pairing up for a movie. Also, this casting news has me laughing/crying a little: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to play the tooth fairy.

Photo courtesy of Sony

Rewind: This Week's Buzz

BuzzSugar — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:00:00 -0800

The Oscars are coming! The Oscars are coming! All week I have been previewing foreign films, breaking down the best picture nominees, and sharing pictures from best costume nominees. Oh, and I also made some bold predictions for who would win. Here's hoping you feel fully prepped for Sunday!
I've been sticking with Lipstick Jungle and Cashmere Mafia, mentally willing them to be better, but let's face it: Weeks of those shows still couldn't match what seconds of the trailer for the Sex and the City movie did for my happiness levels.
I had a really fun time watching Be Kind Rewind and found an inspiring picture from the movie that I need you to caption!
American Idol is truly back as the first 12 guys and girls hit the stage. I definitely was not shocked with who was sent packing; were you?
Childhood flashbacks! An odd, maybe fake clip from Where the Wild Things Are leaked to the web, and we also got a peek at the Smurfs movie animation.
America's Next Top Model premiered with a bang, and those more legitimately suited to high fashion gathered on the beloved Project Runway reunion show.
It's the last leg of the Buzz Book Club. Read up so you can join the fun!

Photos courtesy of Miramax and Source

Cashmere Mafia Rundown: Episode 7, "Dog Eat Dog"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:29:54 -0800

So, is this the end of the line for our lovely cashmere-clad mafiosas? Wednesday's episode of Cashmere Mafia was the final one completed before the writers' strike began, and there's been nary a word from ABC about bringing the show back into production. I guess that's no surprise considering its ratings have been somewhere around the Cavemen level, but it would be a bit of a bummer to go out with last night's episode, which clearly wasn't meant to be the ending of anything at all. Could they end on a note of affair, scandal, financial ruin? Nah — just a couple of professional crises and a random dog. Be sure to check out Fab's fashion quiz, and to read my take on what could be the final Mafia, just

Cashmere Mafia Rundown: Episode 6, "Yours, Mine, and Hers"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:33:10 -0800

Leave it to Cashmere Mafia to usher in Valentine's Day with a hearty helping of heartbreak. It's not like every relationship ended in tatters, but the episode wasn't a great advertisement for swooning, head-over-heels love, either. Unless, of course, we're talking about the love you share with your best girlfriends while devouring a box of chocolates. I'll go character-by-character after the jump, so just

Which Do You Prefer: Cashmere Mafia or Lipstick Jungle?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 08:15:00 -0800

It's been the question of the (admittedly less exciting than normal) TV season: Would Lipstick Jungle or Cashmere Mafia win the battle of the fierce, fabulously dressed females? After a long wait, Lipstick finally premiered last night, so now it's time to decide which show reigns supreme. What's your take? Photos courtesy of NBC and ABC

Which Do You Prefer: Cashmere Mafia or Lipstick Jungle?

Cashmere Mafia

Lipstick Jungle

It's too soon to tell.

Neither!

Cashmere Mafia Rundown: Episode 5, "Stay With Me"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:32:56 -0800

"Stay With Me" seems like a particularly apt title for this episode of Cashmere Mafia. With only two episodes to go before the end of this little mini-season, I'm willing to ride it out — but I'm also not sure I would be heartbroken if I never saw it again once these episodes are done.

That said, there are a few things that have kept me going week to week: Juliet's frosty kiss-off of Davis, Caitlin's goofy sexual confusion, and Mia's bizarre styling choices among them. Luckily, all three of those things factored heavily into this week's episode. I'll go character-by-character after the jump, so

Separated at Birth: Lipstick Jungle and Cashmere Mafia

BuzzSugar — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 08:30:00 -0800

A week from tonight, the Cashmere Mafia vs. Lipstick Jungle battle finally kicks into real gear when Lipstick airs its premiere episode. OK, so it's not as much of a throwdown as I once hoped: Cashmere hasn't been looking so hot in the ratings, and thanks to the strike, the shows will only overlap for three weeks.

Still, now that I've seen two episodes of Lipstick and four of Cashmere, I can't let the opportunity pass to compare and contrast the similarly named shows. Still confused about which one came from a book (that would be Lipstick) and which one got costume designer Patricia Field (that's Cashmere)? Here's a breakdown of their differences — some serious, some frivolous, just like the shows themselves.

	Cashmere Mafia	Lipstick Jungle
Network	ABC	NBC
Sex and The City Representative	Darren Star	Candace Bushnell
Number of Friends	4	3
Meaningful Character Name	Zoe Burden, overworked mother	Victory Ford, failing fashion designer
Series Name Said in Series	Yes	Not yet
Most Cringe-Worthy Line	"Kinda like a little bone voyage."	"Do you know how old I am?"
Average Age of Its Stars	38	37
# of Affairs in First Episode	One	One
Blind Date?	Yes (Mia with a neurosurgeon)	Yes (Victory with a billionaire)
Implausibility (from 1-10)	9	8.5

Cashmere Mafia Rundown: Episode 4, "The Deciders"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:36:57 -0800

OK, Cashmere Mafia, you got me. This week's fourth episode was pretty fun to watch — mostly thanks to Caitlin, who gets all the best lines. Mia, not so much; the show is supposedly built around Lucy Liu's character, but I find her stories dull. Juliet and Zoe got some good stuff last night, though, so that helped fill the giant void that Mia has become for me. Read on for my thoughts:

I continue to be amazed/impressed/intrigued by Caitlin's blase attitude about discovering she might be gay. I'm not sure how believable it is, but I did get a kick out of her proclamation that her lesbian relationship has lasted "twice as long as the last five guys and 29 days longer than Tae Bo, cognitive therapy, and carb-busters."
Zoe and Juliet are the only characters who seem to be getting equal screen time on both their home and their work stories. That's a good and a bad thing: I like Zoe's work stories much more than her home stories, and I feel exactly the opposite about Juliet. Her suspicion of Davis is much more interesting to me than her failure to properly send a group e-mail.
Speaking of which, these women don't particularly strike me as tech-savvy. Still, I do like a good automated phone system joke. "I think you said Lake Placid." "Screw you." "I think you said . . . "

Now, for more on what actually happened (spoilers included), just

Rewind: This Week's Buzz

BuzzSugar — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 08:00:25 -0800

I never thought I'd get K-Fed and Oprah into the same sentence but I think I just did it.
The DGA brought a glimmer of hope to a bleak strike landscape but networks are still bracing themselves for the fallout with more reality series. Still, new scripted programing is making its way to the airwaves and we're hanging in there with shows like Cashmere Mafia to ride this out.
I'm so excited to go to Sundance this year! Check out the festival films I've been highlighting this week.
You told me the movie you were most likely to see this weekend and I told you neither Cloverfield nor 27 Dresses will disappoint. Not in the mood for either? Perhaps it's a good weekend to tackle that waitflix queue of yours.
Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward will make music together once again and I wanted to know what you think of Sia's Gimme More cover. I'm warming to Freddy and the Dials, however it was the Magnetic Fields that made my week.
We know Hayden can do cheerleader but can you imagine her battling vampires? That's right — I'm recasting Buffy!
I'm still getting over the anti-climactic Golden Globe ceremony but thankfully SAG is on the way to fill the void. Get started picking the winners and win a year of Netflix!

Source

Cashmere Mafia Rundown: Episode 3, "Dangerous Liaisons"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:33:50 -0800

Since we're sadly lacking Gossip Girl for our Wednesday night scandal fix, I'm going to try recapping Cashmere Mafia for a while. Yeah, I know it's been a little disappointing so far, but hey, it's a scripted series that's still airing new episodes! Plus, there are only four episodes left after this one, so it's a pretty low commitment. Anyone with me? Let's get to it:

So Mia is in publishing, Juliet works in hotels, Caitlin does cosmetics marketing, and Zoe does . . . what, exactly? No, seriously, what's her job? I'm three episodes in, and I know her work involves something about "points" and making sure her scantily clad coworker doesn't sue her boss, but other than that, I'm stumped.
Also, so much of this show seems like a placeholder they meant to go back and punch up later but didn't have time to fix. Naming a magazine for modern men Modern Man is a lot like naming a fashion magazine Fashion Magazine. As for "Do you know what they call a cosmetics executive with bad skin? Don't make me finish that sentence," I bet they just couldn't come up with a funny way to finish the sentence.

More plot development and slightly less whining if you

Rewind: This Week's Buzz

BuzzSugar — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 07:30:00 -0800

The Golden Globes ceremony may have been canceled, but you can still weigh in on who you want to win in the categories, as well as fill out a Globes ballot with your predictions and be entered to win a year of entertainment! And if you're still having a Golden Globes party, check out my printable ballot.
Cashmere Mafia premiered this week, to not-so-great ratings. What do you think about the show, love it or leave it? And some people thought the second episode was better than the first. How many chances do you give a show before tuning out?
Speaking of awards, this week also brought us the Critics Choice Awards and the People's Choice Awards, along with the announcement of the Directors Guild of America nominees.
I got to chat with Simon Cowell this week, so check out what he had to say about the upcoming season of American Idol.
The video for Eddie Vedder's song Guaranteed, from the movie Into the Wild, is lovely.
This picture of Teri Hatcher on Desperate Housewives is hilarious on its own, but can you think of a funny caption for it?
Want to weigh in on this week's episodes of Desperate Housewives, Project Runway, Gossip Girl and Grey's Anatomy? For most of these, it's the last time to discuss a new episode, so chat it up!

Link Time! 1/10

BuzzSugar — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:36:34 -0800

Vulture has this handy breakdown of the $100 million budget for Valkyrie.
Popwatch wishes Pat Benatar a happy birthday and asks: Which is Benatar's best song?
Ice Cube talks with MTV Movies Blog about the rumor that he may play B.A. Baracus (the part made famous by Mr. T) in the A-Team movie.
TV Squad pays tribute to Johnny Grant, the unofficial mayor of Hollywood.
Idolator wonders: Will the strike kill the Grammys, too?
Cinematical wonders if the addition of the Chipettes to the Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel is such a good idea.
After watching Juliet's reaction to her husband's affair on Cashmere Mafia, DearSugar wonders: Would you want revenge?
In honor of the Golden Globes, CasaSugar wants to see your best gold-toned home finds.

How Many Chances Do You Give a New Show?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:30:00 -0800

Cashmere Mafia aired its second episode last night, and I'm curious to know if it convinced those of you who were on the fence after the premiere to stick around for more. I'm also wondering how many episodes you typically give a show before you decide whether to set your TiVo or tune out for good. If you don't fall in love with the premiere, how long do you stick around? (Also, feel free to share your thoughts on Cashmere No. 2 in the comments below.)Photo copyright 2007 ABC, Inc.

How Many Chances Do You Give a New Show?

One episode — if I don't like it, I'm out

Two or three episodes — a nice tryout, but not a huge commitment

Four to six episodes — I really want to see how it develops

More than six episodes — once I start watching, I'm sucked in

Other (tell me below)

Cashmere Mafia Is Back Tonight — But Will Viewers Follow?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 05:45:00 -0800

Cashmere Mafia is back tonight for its proper premiere — apparently ABC would prefer to call the episode that aired on Sunday a sneak preview. But is anyone going to be watching? I didn't expect the highly anticipated series to be struggling in the ratings already, but the news after Sunday's episode wasn't good. The show drew about 10.7 million viewers, which might not be so bad if A) it hadn't lost almost half of the audience that tuned in for Desperate Housewives right before it, and B) 2 million people hadn't switched the show off at the halfway point.

Though lots of you weren't really digging the show on first watch, most of you were either instantly hooked or charitably willing to give the show a second chance. Having seen tonight's second episode, I will say I liked it better than the first — though it still didn't come close to my high expectations. I'm not ready to tune out Cashmere just yet, but I am a little bit afraid for its future — after all, if it couldn't do well with a huge episode of Desperate Housewives as its lead-in, how will it perform when its only support comes from Wife Swap and Supernanny?

Are you still game? You can watch a scene from tonight's episode if you

Cashmere Mafia: Love It or Leave It?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 05:30:00 -0800

The highly anticipated Cashmere Mafia finally premiered last night, with another new episode slated for Wednesday. I've already told you I was a little disappointed. Now it's your turn: Will you be tuning in again? Photo copyright 2007 ABC, Inc.

Cashmere Mafia: Love It or Leave It?

Love it — I'm totally hooked already.

Leave it — I won't tune in again.

Unsure — It's too early to tell.

Who cares? I didn't watch.

Pilot Watch: Cashmere Mafia

BuzzSugar — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:30:03 -0800

With several new series set to premiere this Winter, I'm resurrecting my occasional pilot watch feature to share my first impressions of the upcoming shows. First up is the highly anticipated ABC series Cashmere Mafia, which premieres this Sunday, Jan. 6, before moving to its regular Wednesday time slot.

What's it about? Four business-school friends turned powerful New Yorkers conquer the boardroom and the bedroom.

Who's in it? Lucy Liu, Miranda Otto, Bonnie Somerville, Frances O'Connor

The good: The show has its roots in Sex and The City, with writer Darren Star serving as the show's executive producer, so that's not a bad pedigree for another series about female friendships. The pilot has a few genuinely funny moments, especially from Somerville and Otto, the latter of whom looks and acts like a junior Bree (Van de Kamp) Hodge. The outfits from SaTC costume designer Patricia Field are alternately brilliant and horrible, but at least they're never dull.

The bad: The first episode introduces far too many convenient plot lines to make a coherent story: There's an engagement, then a broken engagement; an affair, its discovery, and revenge; a nanny introduced and quickly dropped; a lesbian plot line that evolves from a quick glance to a kiss in mere minutes. It's so frenetic and covers so much ground that when one character said "I'm late," I half expected the next line to be "I'm due in June; the baby's yours." (The second episode calms that pace down somewhat.) The show is supposed to be about the characters' office lives, but after two episodes, I still didn't know what three of them actually did. And, maybe worst of all, the four main characters don't have the easy chemistry of the SaTC ladies or even the Desperate Housewives.

Will I watch? Well, there's not much else on, so why not? Honestly, though, the second episode was a bit better than the first — though still not great — and so I suppose I'll give it a few more shots. The show only completed seven episodes before the strike started, so it's not a huge commitment.

To check out a preview and a gallery of photos, just

BuzzSugar's Must-Haves for January

BuzzSugar — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 09:28:27 -0800

Happy 2008 and welcome to BuzzSugar's monthly must-haves, where I show off a handful of the things I'm most looking forward to watching, buying, renting and reading. I'm hoping to start the new year off right with the following goodies.

To see why these six things are at the top of my list, just

Lost Takes Over for Grey's on ABC's Winter Schedule

BuzzSugar — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:37:37 -0800

ABC finally announced its schedule for the winter part of the TV season today — making official what the network would do without Grey's Anatomy and the other shows that are out of episodes due to the writers' strike. The biggest news: a new time slot for Lost, which will start airing Jan. 31 in the regular Grey's slot, 9 p.m. on Thursdays. Lost only has eight of the 16 episodes planned for this season, but something is better than nothing, right?

The other big news: Cashmere Mafia finally has a time slot! No, ABC didn't take my advice and put it up against NBC's Lipstick Jungle. It will premiere Thursday, Jan. 3, at 10 p.m., but its regular slot will be Wednesdays at 9 p.m., where it will battle American Idol for at least part of the season.

ABC picked Eli Stone, a new show about a lawyer who thinks he has a spiritual calling, to air after Lost; it too will premiere Jan. 31. The other big premieres: The Dancing with the Stars spinoff, Dance War: Bruno Vs. Carrie Ann, will air Mondays starting Jan. 7; Wife Swap and Supernanny will air before Cashmere on Wednesdays starting Jan. 2; and Oprah's Big Give will air Sunday nights starting in early March.

What do you make of the news? Glad you won't have to stay up as late for Lost? Thrilled that Cashmere Mafia will really air after all?

Cashmere Mafia Vs. Lipstick Jungle: An Update

BuzzSugar — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:46:47 -0800

Remember back at the Upfronts when we were buzzing about whether Lipstick Jungle or Cashmere Mafia would be the reigning sexy-women-in-the-city show of the TV season?

Yeah, still waiting.

For a while, it looked like Cashmere was the winner, nabbing a November premiere date from ABC while Lipstick stayed in scheduling limbo. But then the writers' strike came along and ABC yanked Cashmere off the schedule. (It should have premiered two days ago.)

That opened the door for Lipstick to get some buzz back, starting with last night's Rockefeller Center tree lighting, when stars Brooke Shields, Kim Raver, and Lindsay Price announced their show will premiere Feb. 7 at 10 p.m. It will take over for ER, which will have run out of new episodes by then because of the strike, and will be up against whatever replacements the other networks find for Big Shots and Without a Trace.

My suggestion? ABC should put Cashmere up against it. Granted, I haven't seen either pilot, but Cashmere looks young and fun, and it would be a great match with Grey's Anatomy whenever the strike ends. And besides, I'm guessing most people will only watch one or the other of these shows anyway. Might as well just make them duke it out directly.

Writers' Strike Update: The Effects So Far

BuzzSugar — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:35:29 -0800

It's only day two, but already, the Hollywood writers' strike is starting to affect our daily viewing. Late-night shows went into repeats starting Monday; here's some of the other news from the picket lines:

The start of Cashmere Mafia has been postponed. Originally slated to start Nov. 27, the show only has a handful of episodes completed, and the network is reportedly worried about starting a new show that could run out of ready-to-air installments quickly.
CBS has apparently started work on a new season of Big Brother that could air in January or February if a strike is still going on.
Among scripted shows, half-hour comedies shot in front of a live audience are the first to be affected; production has shut down on The Big Bang Theory, 'Til Death, Two and a Half Men, and Rules of Engagement.
Scrubs might finish only 12 of its final 18 episodes if a strike persists.
Many showrunners (aka head writer/producers) have stopped all work on their shows, including Shonda Rhimes of Grey's Anatomy and Tim Kring of Heroes.
Only two scenes from The Office got shot yesterday, and protesters forced filming to stop on one scene of Cane.

As many of you have been saying, focusing on TV and movies is maybe the most shallow view to take during the strike; not everyone has that luxury. Let's hope for a quick resolution so everyone affected can get back to their lives.

TCA News Roundup: "Cavemen," 'Cashmere," and More

BuzzSugar — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:30:07 -0700

One of the most hotly contested sessions of the TCA press tour came Wednesday afternoon, when the cast and producers of the much joked-about "Cavemen" took the stage. Reporters demanded to know if the show was preying on particular racial stereotypes, whether the show had any female or non-white writers, and whether Geico was involved in creating the show. (The answers: no, yes, and not really, in that order.)
Regardless of how "Cashmere Mafia" works as a show, the leading ladies (Lucy Liu, Miranda Otto, Bonnie Somerville and Frances O'Connor) are going to look darn good. Patricia Field, the costume designer from "Sex and the City," will be creating the outfits. Said Liu: "She has an incredible talent for putting together pieces and making them look like art."
ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson said he wasn't concerned about the creative turn "Grey's Anatomy" took last season, but he did expect the show would look different in the fall. "There was a lot of really difficult, you know, emotional stuff going on for kind of a multitude of characters," McPherson said. "And I think we're going to get away from some of that just because of the nature of the storytelling that [Shonda Rhimes]'s going to do."
"Dancing with the Stars" will be getting a spinoff of sorts, tentatively titled "Dance X," in which the judges will pit teams of dancers against each other.

Get a Sneak Peek of ABC's New Shows

BuzzSugar — Tue, 15 May 2007 23:30:03 -0700

ABC isn't giving us quite as extensive a sneak peek of its fall lineup as NBC did for its new shows, but we can still get a taste: In addition to a ton of photos of the new shows and their casts, ABC's put up brief video clips of its pilots. You can see the whole batch of them together, or you can just click on the name of the show in this list to go directly to that show's clip: "Sam I Am," "Cavemen," "Carpoolers," "Pushing Daisies," "Private Practice," "Dirty Sexy Money," "Big Shots," "Women's Murder Club," "Cashmere Mafia," "Eli Stone," and "Miss/Guided."

It's not easy to judge a show from a minute of video, but I'm going to try anyway. "Dirty Sexy Money" and "Pushing Daisies" grabbed me the most, "Miss/Guided" could either be wonderful or awful, "Eli Stone" is worth watching for the George Michael cameo, "Big Shots" is "Sex and the City" for dudes (but does star geek-wonderful Joshua Malina, so points for that), and "Cavemen" ... well, at least it made me chuckle, which is more than I can say for "Carpoolers."

I have tons of pictures of the new shows — and really, you've got to see the crazy "Cavemen" makeup and the fanciful world of "Pushing Daisies" — so to take a spin through,

ABC's Fall Schedule: My Take

BuzzSugar — Tue, 15 May 2007 13:30:08 -0700

Now that I've had a while to think through ABC's announcement of its fall schedule this morning, I have some thoughts on which news is good, which is bad and which is still a little baffling. Take a spin through my list, then let me know what you think.

ABC is taking a big risk by putting three new shows — "Pushing Daisies," "Private Practice" and "Dirty Sexy Money" — on Wednesdays, but they're three of the shows I'm most looking forward to this season. "Pushing Daisies" is getting amazing buzz already, "Dirty Sexy Money" has my man Krause, and ... well, you know how I felt about the first episode of "Private Practice," but it can grow.
Poor "Men in Trees"! Granted, it's not a show I got into this season, but I know a lot of you love it, and I think ABC's treatment of it is seriously bizarre. First it launches on Fridays, then moves to the post-"Grey's" spot and builds an audience, only to get bumped off the schedule for tryouts of new shows. Now it's back on Fridays. Seriously, way to toy with your fans.
However ... I'm getting the sneaking suspicion that Friday TV might actually be good this year. (Is that a sign of the apocalypse?) Between "Friday Night Lights," "Men in Trees" and the new "Women's Murder Club" — which at least doesn't sound awful — I might actually have a reason to stay in.

Lots more musings, so

Fall TV Pilot Trends: Tough Working Women

BuzzSugar — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 04:55:08 -0700

It's TV pilot season, when hopeful writers, directors, and actors give the networks glimpses of what could be their next big hits. Few pilots will ever make it to air, and the odds might be especially long over on ABC, which has already renewed many of its current shows. Still, there are some gems, and over the next few weeks, I'll be looking at the pilots and trying to spot the trends that could be coming soon to a TV near you. First up, the Tough Working Women shows.

Back at the Golden Globes, I mused that there were few dramas led by strong female characters. It's interesting, then, to see how many of the network pilots focus on women in powerful roles. Here's a sampling:

"Lipstick Jungle": This NBC pilot is already one of the most buzzed-about of the year. Based on a novel by "Sex and the City" writer Candace Bushnell, the show centers on three powerful, unapologetic women in cutthroat New York City. The show stars Brooke Shields as a movie executive desperate for an Oscar and Kim Raver (formerly of "24") as a tough magazine editor who wants to make CEO; Lindsay Price is set to play their third friend, a designer hoping to find Mr. Right. NBC has already invested a lot of resources in the show, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it on the fall schedule.

"Cashmere Mafia": Starring Lucy Liu, Frances O'Connor, and Miranda Otto, this ABC pilot has been called the next-generation "Sex and the City." The plot revolves around four executives who have been friends since college and rely on each other as they juggle their careers, families, and personal lives in — where else? — New York City.

Four more, so