TCA Wrap-Up: Top Shows Set the Table for Cable TV
Aug04

TCA Wrap-Up: Top Shows Set the Table for Cable TV

Adaptations of “Howards End,” “Get Shorty” and “The Right Stuff.” New comedies featuring Tracy Morgan, Jason Alexander and Sarah Silverman. Documentaries on Steven Spielberg, Elizabeth Smart and Danica Patrick. And, after five years, a new season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Those are just a few of the new programs featured during last week’s cable portion of the Television Critics Association summer press tour, which wrapped up...

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Holy *#$%! South Park is Bigger, Better and Entering Season 20
Sep14

Holy *#$%! South Park is Bigger, Better and Entering Season 20

It’s a staggering concept, but Eric Cartman, Kyle Marsh and Stan Broflovski should be 28 by now. Instead, the crudely animated characters that sprung from the imaginations of Trey Parker and Matt Stone are perennially 8 years old—but always up to new tricks– as “South Park,” the animated series that put Comedy Central on the map, enters its 20th season on the cable network September 14. Here are some other astounding...

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New Daily Show Host Trevor Noah’s Private Performance Before a Very Tough Crowd
Jul30

New Daily Show Host Trevor Noah’s Private Performance Before a Very Tough Crowd

All eyes were on Trevor Noah Tuesday night at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. But it wasn’t the comedian’s average stand-up gig. Noah, who in less than two months will take over the ultra high profile job as host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” from Jon Stewart, faced a very tough crowd—members of the Television Critics Assn. It was his first in-person appearance before the group, many of whom will go on to report on and dissect...

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A Funny Thing, Or a Number of Them, Happened at the Comedy Awards
Apr12

A Funny Thing, Or a Number of Them, Happened at the Comedy Awards

File this under the category of “Why didn’t we think of this before?” Twenty years in, Comedy Central inaugurated its first awards telecast Sunday night with its Comedy Awards, even as its corporate cousins MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon,TV Land and Spike have had successful kudocasts for years. Using that corporate synergy, the show was simulcast across a swath of those networks. Was it worth the wait? The show definitely...

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Laughter is the Ticket at a New Awards Show
Feb17

Laughter is the Ticket at a New Awards Show

Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be another awards show, Comedy Central comes up with one that looks like a gas. It’s the first annual Comedy Awards, taping March 26 at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom and airing on April 10 on Comedy Central, VH1, Spike TV, CMT, TV Land, Logo and Nick At Nite. The nominees were just announced, and “30 Rock” leads the pack with seven nominations, followed by “Modern Family” and “The...

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