The Fall of 2007 came in with great fanfare in the TV world, only to be squashed just weeks later by the
writers' strike. For this Fall, some networks focused on "relaunching" those shows cut short because of the strike:
Chuck and
Life on NBC, and
Pushing Daisies,
Private Practice, and
Dirty Sexy Money on ABC. (Though it's now in its third season,
Heroes probably falls into this category, too.)
The good news: Many of those shows might not have gotten renewed without the writers' strike.
At this Summer's
TCA press tour, a lot of shows talked about "hitting the reset button" after the
writers' strike — but maybe none more than
Private Practice. The
Grey's Anatomy spinoff had a rough go in season one, and the producers wanted to refocus it to be more about medicine and moral dilemmas. Wednesday's premiere was a step in that direction, though I didn't think the actual "reset" came till the closing minutes.
Private Practice had its ups and downs last year, but there was one consistent good thing about the show for me: Paul Adelstein as Oceanside Wellness's pediatrician and unlucky-in-love bachelor, Cooper. When I spotted Adelstein after the Private Practice session at the
TCA press tour in July, I convinced him to stop for a quick chat. In person, he was quite charming (and even laughed off my good-natured ribbing about his bright-white sneakers), and he gave me some hints about what's coming up for Cooper, who's still involved with the uptight Charlotte (KaDee Strickland) when season two begins.
All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and
Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in
What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. In addition to my selections below, you can also add
Speed Racer,
Made of Honor and a little independent film starring Kate Beckinsale called
Snow Angels to your lists.
Nothing gets me laughing like some good blooper reels from my favorite TV shows.
Grey's Anatomy, in particular, has delivered some
pretty good blooper reels in the past, and I always look forward to when the next season's will make its way to YouTube.
This year, ABC put out teasers of the blooper reels for a bunch of its shows, including Grey's,
Ugly Betty,
Desperate Housewives, and
Private Practice.
