Television


The Big Bang Theory
CBS
Great comedy featuring the best geeks on TV
Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki, (of "Roseanne" fame) star as Sheldon and Leonard.


Documentary Channel


The Early Television Foundation


Flashpoint
New CTV/CBS Series

Flashpoint is the best Canadian action drama ever.
The acting  and shooting is terrific.
The production focuses on
an elite  Toronto special tactical team
The Strategic Response Unit (SRU).
Creators: Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern

Cinematography:
David Perrault:  Episodes 1-2
Stephen Reizes: Episodes 3- 13

News: CTV and CBS have upped their latest orders of Flashpoint to 18 episodes.


Stephen Reizes, Director of Photography


Glee
Entertaining high school comedy about a Glee Club. Great casting,
excellent choreography of musical numbers.


Emergency resident: Ann Czarnik MD
Cameraman: Richard Chisolm

Hopkins
ABC News

"Hopkins" is the most interesting real-life medical documentary on TV.
This 6-part series features different doctors each week
from Baltimore, Maryland's Johns Hopkins Hospital.
ABC's crews spent four months filming at Hopkins.

The stories are riveting.
Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa climbed over a border fence from Mexico as a boy
 to pick fruit in California, and eventually became one of the nation's top brain surgeons.


Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa

Executive Producer: Terence Wrong
"Yes, you will still see the amazing medicine they practice. But you will also get an incredibly intimate look at the lives of the doctors, residents and families at Hopkins."


Emergency resident: Ann Czarnik MD
Cameraman: Richard Chisolm


House, MD

FOX

Hugh Laurie stars as Dr. Gregory House, an acerbic doctor who solves obscure medical problems that no one else can diagnose. His students are his 'pets.'  He gives them a hard time because he wants them to learn. The dialogue is sharp, witty and entertaining. The acting is superb, and the photography is excellent. Dr. House is funny-mean.  He does things everyone would like to do but they don't have the nerve to do. That makes the program delightful.


  Hugh Laurie


Kukla, Fran and Olie 
 


Damien Lewis

Life

NBC
Wednesday nights at 10/9c

Damien Lewis stars as a gutsy  detective who was recently released from prison after serving twelve years for a crime he didn't commit.  He's a millionaire because of a court settlement. He drives fast cars and eats lots of fruit. Great humor, unpredictable. Best new release on TV.
Now on 2nd season.

Interview


Simon Baker

The Mentalist
Tuesdays 9:00pm ET/PT

Australian actor Simon Baker plays Patrick Jane, an independent consultant with the California Bureau of Investigation, in this new television show. Baker solves crimes by observation.
He doesn't follow the rules and seems to sense what has happened during the criminal act.
The show is entertaining because the right dose of humor is always present.
CBS has ordered a full season of the show.


Modern Family
The funniest show on TV.

They are gay, straight, multi-cultural, obsessed, uptight, immature,
- everything you need to make a comedy work.
 The show is witty, modern and very entertaining.


The Museum of Broadcast Communication


Pilot Guides


Taiwan Martial Arts


Australia Blood Sky


The Ron Clark Story, directed by
Randa Haines,  90 minutes, U.S./Canada
This Made-for-TV film is the story of one man's belief that he can teach kids, any kids, to learn. Matthew Perry plays a small-town, rural North Carolina teacher who moves to New York City after he sees an ad in a newspaper "Teachers Wanted." He finds a job in Harlem. The story is based on true events.

 
Six Feet Under, HBO, Sundays, 9 p.m., EST. Awards
"Six Feet Under" features a family of undertakers.  Alan Ball ("American Beauty") is the creator and Executive Producer. A must see. Good hard-edged, unpredictable material.
 

Summer Heights High
Written by and Starring Chris Lilley

This ABC-TV series is one of the funniest programs I've ever seen.  Comedian Chris Lilley plays three of the main characters at an Australian high school, and he does so brilliantly.

They are Jonah, a misbehaving bully (center)



Mr. G, a flamboyant drama teacher with a hugh ego



and
Ja'mie, a rich, spoiled young lady so full of herself that the viewer becomes repulsed.


Chris Lilley as Ja'mie


The humor is caustic and extremely funny.
I saw two episodes on an Air Canada flight and was immediately hooked.

HBO's Summer Heights High Is Secondary School for Comedy


© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc.
The Unit
Created by David Mamet
Based on the book "Inside Delta Force" by Eric L. Haney,
 
CBS’ new military drama
focuses on super-secret Special Forces officers
 and the women who love them
.
The show is filled with action and the drama of conflicting family situations.
Tight discipline is enforced upon The Unit and their families.

Filmmaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet (“Glengarry Glen Ross”)
 is an executive producer and is writing or directing.


Weeds

Cutting-edge comedy about a mom who sells pot to support her dysfunctional family.
Dysfunctional is actually the key to every family featured on the program. Somehow they all find
ways to survive as we laugh our way through their misadventures.

Zero Hour:  Historical events are re-lived minute-by-minute on this 4-part series. One of the best new TV docu-drama series. Produced by Cineflix, Montreal.


©Photo by Ivan Kozlov Courtesy of Cineflix

Chernobyl: Perevolchenko (Holosnyak) screaming into CCTV camera to the control room, "The reactor's about to blow."




©Photo by Sophie Giraud Courtesy of Cineflix

Columbine High School
A 24-hour examination of the 1999 massacre  

Actors Ben Johnson and Josh Young
portray Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris

 


©Photo by Pete Dadds Courtesy of Cineflix

"Terror in Tokyo"
A casualty of the Sarin gas attack in the Tokyo Metro


Film Fanatics


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