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He Saw, She Saw
60 min.
Four witnesses claim that a woman was abducted from a mall parking lot while her husband was standing just yards away with his back to her. Samantha: Poppy Montgomery. Jack: Anthony LaPaglia. Martin: Eric Close.
Cast: Anthony LaPaglia, Poppy Montgomery, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Enrique Murciano, Eric Close
Fall Television Premieres Give Glimpse of Future Viewing Habits of a TiVo Nation
More than 1 million viewers watching television this season in TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) households will be creating their own "primetime on demand" schedules, watching recorded, not live, programming about 80 percent of the time. These new viewing patterns offer a glimpse of the changing face of network programming and the potential for a new perspective on the timeslot organized viewing and programming patterns that have ruled television for the past 50 years. As programming debuts this fall, TiVo subscribers are sampling new shows and are more likely to remain loyal to the programs they find most entertaining.
"New fall shows aren't the only thing premiering this television season. For the first time, more than 1 million viewers will be watching the new television season using TiVo and they'll be tuning into recorded rather than live television," said Mike Ramsay, CEO of TiVo. "Inevitable change will sweep across the television landscape in the next few years as viewers find the shows that interest them and watch them at the time most convenient for them."
Unlike non-DVR households that watch live programming most of the time, in TiVo households 80 percent of primetime programming is recorded and played back on the viewers' schedule. This means they are rarely tuned into network programs during the timeslot scheduled airing.
For example, Friends is one of the most popular shows on TiVo every Thursday night, just as it is in non-TiVo households. But a significant number of TiVo viewers will shift the popular show for viewing on the weekend. Other popular shows often shifted from their network primetime slot include The Practice, Everybody Loves Raymond and ER. (See Chart Below)
"TiVo households timeshift programming from primetime to their own personal downtime in order to watch shows on their own schedule. This can often result in the recording and sampling of a wide variety of programs, both primetime favorites and new programming, especially at the beginning of the new TV season," Ramsay said.
The power of TiVo to reshape the timeslot organized landscape can also be seen in which of this fall's new shows TiVo viewers are beginning to add to their list of Season Passes. Of new shows this season, the Top 5 most popular entries for the Season Pass feature so far are:
1. CSI: Miami, CBS
2. Firefly, FOX
3. John Doe, FOX
4. Push, Nevada, ABC
5. Without a Trace, CBS
This list of Season Passes represents those programs that TiVo viewers may feel some affinity for as the new shows premiere. Whether or not those recordings remain as Season Passes over the course of the fall season may demonstrate which programs are maintaining TiVo viewership. Whereas new shows may struggle to build an audience against an established favorite, TiVo viewers control their viewing schedules and can sign up to view an entire season of the shows that most interest them, while maintaining recordings for their primetime favorites like Friends and ER. TiVo's Top 5 new fall debuts is based the number of households that entered these programs into the feature on TiVo known as "Season Pass." This feature allows TiVo viewers to record an entire season of episodes of their favorite programs just by clicking in the title of the show.
Two shows -- CSI: Miami and Firefly have already achieved mainstream critical and audience acceptance. But the remaining top five programs -- John Doe, Push, Nevada, and Without a Trace -- reflect the impact the digital video recorders give viewers to find shows that have notoriously bad or highly competitive time slots. But whether those shows maintain popularity in a TiVo schedule over the season can offer a glimpse at how a show may fare in primetime.
As some of the fall's newest shows take their cue from last year's 24, building complex story lines that must be viewed week after week, TiVo viewers more readily accept these shows knowing that they only need to set a season pass to quickly and easily record every episode.
And as shows like Push, Nevada push the envelope, TiVo viewers may be more willing to try new things. Push, Nevada, a new kind of reality show that pairs compelling drama with the prospect of a cash prize, entices viewers to watch each installment so they can get all the clues, solve the mystery and claim the prize. With a push of a button, TiVo viewers have the ability to fast forward, pause, rewind, and catch every clue in each episode.
CBS has released images from the Birthday Boy episode of their
missing persons drama, WITHOUT A TRACE.
This week, an 11-year-old boy disappears from the subway on his way to
Yankee Stadium for his birthday celebration. Jack Malone (Anthony
LaPaglia) and company investigate his disappearance.
The episode airs October 3.
Connecting the dots to Guzman 'Trace' role
WCBS/Ch. 2 news correspondent Pablo Guzman will make a cameo tonight
on CBS' "Without a Trace."
The episode, which revolves around a team of investigators searching for a missing 11-year old, was shot in New York and includes a scene of Guzman doing a news report from outside Yankee Stadium.
Guzman didn't get the part because of his acting ability, but because of a personal connection.
In 1989, Guzman had an intern named Hank Steinberg, who has since gone on to co-create and produce "Without a Trace."
The show stars Anthony LaPaglia, Poppy Montgomery and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as the investigators.
A WCBS spokeswoman said the station had no issue with Guzman's appearance on the show.
TV Guide's description of the Oct. 12-13 episode of Adventure Inc.
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Adventure Inc.
Memento Mori
60 min.
A U.N. official (Hardee T. Lineham) sends Judson's team to Cambodia to find a chopper that was shot down during the Vietnam War. Bert: Kevin Rushton. Riley: Joseph Pierrie. Che Lao: Von Flores. Judson: Michael Biehn.
Cast: Michael Biehn, Karen Cliche, Jesse Nilsson, Hardee T. Lineham, Kevin Rushton, Joseph Pierrie, Von Flores
A few years back Michael Biehn was involved in a film about porn star John Holmes called Wonderland. The film's going ahead, without him
Kilmer on road to 'Wonderland' for Lions Gate
Val Kilmer is in negotiations to star as the late porn legend John Holmes in
Lions Gate Films' true-crime tale "Wonderland" for director James Cox.
Christina Applegate, Kate Bosworth, Lisa Kudrow and Josh Lucas are in talks
to round out the cast of the film, which begins shooting next month. Holmes
was perhaps the most famous porn star of his time; he made more than 2,000
hard-core movies and slept with more than 10,000 women. (His life was one of
the inspirations for Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997 film "Boogie Nights.") A
drug addict, he died from AIDS-related complications in 1988 at the age of
43. Lions Gate's project will not be a biopic, but a true-crime tale focusing
on a specific time in Holmes' life, namely his implication in what is known
as the Laurel Canyon Murders in 1981, a quadruple homicide on Wonderland
Avenue that also involved his teenage lover (Bosworth). Kudrow would play
Holmes' wife, Sharon, with Lucas and Applegate as Holmes' friends Ron and
Susan Lawnius. Todd Sanovitz, D. Loriston Scott, James Cox and Captain
Mauzner wrote the script, which is being produced by Holly Wiersma. Lions
Gate, Mike Paseornek, Marc Butan, Tom Ortenberg and Peter Block are executive
producing.
'Nancy Drew' Sleuths for ABC
ABC is hoping that Nancy Drew can discover some
strong ratings on Sunday night.
In this contemporary version of the mystery series, Nancy is entering her freshman year at River Heights University, where her crime-solving reputation has preceded her. Maggie Lawson of "Inside Schwartz" stars as the legendary girl detective.
The young sleuth is joined by her childhood girlfriends George (Lauren Birkell, "Van Wilder" ) and Bess (Jill Ritchie) and gains a new roommate, Teeny (Marieh Delfino, "All About Us" ). The group investigates when a popular student (Sabine Singh, "Someone Like You" ) is implicated in her boyfriend's drug-induced coma.
If the movie does well, Nancy may get another chance at a television series. "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" debuted in January of 1977, and ran until 1979. While Hardy Boys Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy are remembered more by children of the era, Pamela Sue Martin played the titan-haired Drew.
The new "Nancy Drew" was originally developed as a potential series for ABC this past Spring, but was not picked up for the fall line-up. However, if it does well it could be picked up as a backdoor pilot.
Ironically, in the '70s, "Mysteries" aired on ABC opposite "The Wonderful World of Disney" on NBC. Now, it's returning as a "Wonderful World" feature on Disney-owned ABC.
Brett Cullen ("From the Earth to the Moon" ) also stars as Mr. Drew, along with Heath Freeman as Patrick Daly, Charlie Finn as Hank Greenberg and James Avery as professor Shifflin.
"Nancy Drew" airs Sunday, Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. on ABC.
NOTE: According to IMDB , Dale Midkiff is playing Jimbo Mitchell.
Ellingson Arms Hellboy
TyRuben Ellingson, concept designer for the upcoming feature Hellboy, told Comics2Film.com that Hellboy director Guillermo Del Toro is crafting a "stand-alone original." "Obviously, Guillermo has to take this whole world that [comic-series creator] Mike [Mignola] created and bring it into a three-dimensional real world," Ellingson told the Web site. "So he's making very different kinds of decisions in certain areas about how to keep it mysterious and mystical, while other things are more technologically based."
Ellingson, who designed a massive gun for Hellboy (Ron Perlman), as well as the sleek offices of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.), added: "The B.P.R.D. is probably more complex than what I think is presented in the graphic novel. Guillermo's mission is to create the world where Hellboy can exist and be believable. There's a sense that, when you meet this character, you're also meeting a larger world that the B.P.R.D. knows about and that members of the B.P.R.D are involved with. How that world is shown, and the elements that comprise it, are part of the bigger story, which is really Hellboy."
WHAT: World Premiere of the film "ABANDON"
WHEN: MONDAY, OCTOBER 14th PROMPTLY AT 7:30pm
Arrivals to begin at 6:30pm
WHERE: Paramount Pictures
5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood CA 90038
WHO: Other celebrity guests attending include: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Klein, Helen Mirren, Jesse Bradford, Mary McCormack, Michael Sheen, Marisa Coughlan, Raquel Welch, Val Kilmer, Mike Epps, Sarah Chalk, Tia & Tamera Mowry, Poppy Montgomery, Neal McDonough, Ron Livingston, Ron Perlman, Bruce Campbell, Joe Cortese, Andrew Davoli, Denise Faye, Eddie McClintock ... and more to follow
Rick Worthy's Holes
10/02/02 - "Variety" reported yesterday that this film had been picked
up by Disney as part of a new first look deal with Walden Media, and a
mere 24 hours later, one of my inside sources tipped me to a release
date: January 17th, 2003. Disney is wasting no time in getting this
film in theaters, but January is also traditionally known as a
"dumping ground" for films that studios are not confident about (not
counting those films going wide following Oscar-qualifying December
runs). Of course, rules are meant to be broken. Is this film an
exception?
Anthony LaPaglia stars in this Jerry Bruckheimer production about the FBI Missing Persons Unit. He and his all-business staff, which includes a black (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a youngish guy (Enrique Murciano), a pretty woman (Poppy Montgomery) and the undeserving newcomer (Eric Close), tackle the case of a young woman who seems to have vanished.
This is straightforward police work, ala "Law &Order." Just the case, no outside frills.
The cast is good, the story interesting. But it can fall into groan-ville, as when Jack says, at the end of tonight's episode, "It's our job. It's what we do." Jeesh.
"Without a Trace" is a much better 10 p.m. offering for CBS than last season's "The Agency." It might do well against the fading, though still strong, "ER."
'Trace' indicates CBS has a clue
Solid cast gives show some potential By David Zurawik
Sun Television Critic
If there is one new network drama that looks as if it might connect with a deeper current of feeling running through the culture these days, it is Without a Trace, a CBS series starring Anthony LaPaglia as chief of the FBI's Missing Persons Squad. After a week of way too many new series that illustrate how knuckleheaded network television can be, Without a Trace is a welcome reminder of how relevant prime-time drama can feel when the producers get even some of it right.
One of the things they get right in terms of drama involves borrowing some of the sensibility of 24, last year's freshman sensation with Kiefer Sutherland as the head of a government agency trying to thwart a political assassination. Without a Trace isn't actually told in real time the way 24 is, but the sense of a clock tick-tick-ticking permeates every frame.
Not only are the first 24 hours after a person goes missing crucial to the success or failure of any investigation, the first thing the squad does in every case is reconstruct a DOD (day of disappearance) timeline for the 24 hours up to the disappearance. In tonight's pilot, a 28-year-old fast-track marketing executive seems to vanish off the face of the Earth one night, and the sense of mystery about not only her disappearance but also her life is heightened with each bit of information gleaned by the squad as they simultaneously track her last 24 hours and run down leads.
The other thing this series does right involves the makeup and casting of the squad. Like 24, which anchored itself on the rock-solid foundation of Sutherland, Without a Trace also has an actor with both talent and presence at its center in LaPaglia, who plays Senior Agent Jack Malone.
LaPaglia is not quite in Sutherland's league when it comes to filling the screen, but he has a better supporting cast, especially in Poppy Montgomery as Agent Samantha Spade. (OK, the character's name is a little obvious.) From a brilliant off-beat supporting performance as a psycho fiancee in Tom Fontana's The Beat, to a wonderful turn as Marilyn Monroe in the miniseries Blonde, Montgomery is building one of the best resumes in television. While not spectacular, her work in the first two episodes of Without a Trace is rock solid. Eric Close, who plays the newest member of the team, is also a nice choice by the producers.
But the best thing about Without a Trace might be its timing - coming along at a time when a child sadly seems to go missing almost every day, with some of the investigations playing out for months in headlines and on 24-hour cable news channels. This summer, you couldn't turn on a local newscast without seeing parents talking about their fear that their children might be kidnapped. There is an anxiety and concern in the land, no doubt about it.
And it's not just children who go missing, as the recent stories about the disappearance of Bison Dele (a onetime University of Maryland basketball player last seen on a sailboat near Tahiti) attest. Such reports can often be the grist of fascinating murder mysteries.
But sometimes the person is missing by choice. That kind of case, in a weird way, also taps into one of the dominant narratives of the new television season: starting over. Agent Malone and his team are there to see to it that you don't make a new start without offering some explanation and fulfillment of obligation to those left behind.
Without a Trace is an engaging and resonant adult drama, which means it is just the kind of series that should rate a rave, except for one thing. There is a decided drop in quality between the pilot and episode two, which features an 11-year-old boy being separated from his father in the subway. I worry about that kind of quick decline.
One other worry I have about its future: The CBS series airs opposite ER on NBC, a lineup spot from which a lot of shows have vanished without a trace. On the other hand, they didn't have CSI: Crime Scene Investigation for what seems like a perfect fit of a hit lead-in.
'Trace' does stylish job of tracking
Grade: B+
If the theme song of "CSI" is "Who Are You," the one for "Without a Trace" could be "Where Are You." The new CBS mystery isn't a whodunit but a wheredeyat.
Anthony LaPaglia stars as Jack Malone, senior agent in the Missing Persons Squad of the FBI, whose job it is to try to track down the recently vamoosed within the first two days of their disappearance. "In most cases, after 48 hours they're gone," he explains.
His team of investigators includes the film-noirishly monikered Samantha Spade (Poppy Montgomery), Vivian Johnson (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), Danny Taylor (Enrique Murciano) and Martin Fitzgerald (Eric Close). Their job: to ask questions, hit the New York City pavement and try to piece together the scenario that explains where the missing person is, dead or alive, and if foul play is afoot.
"Without a Trace" is the latest CBS show to groove on police procedural jargon, cool investigative gadgets and Jerry Bruckheimer as its executive producer. In other words, every similarity to "CSI" is absolutely intentional.
Each episode (or at least the first two made available for review) sketches out the psychological profiles of friends, family and lovers of the person. Secrets come out under pressure, assumptions unravel, and in the right light, everyone can look like a suspect.
That includes the missing subject, who may have lammed it without leaving a see-ya-later note. As Malone says of tonight's MIA subject, "Everyone we talk to, we see a different Maggie." (We also see the woman literally through flashbacks that gradually piece together the mystery, allowing for some crafty camera work.)
Like "CSI" (both versions), the show is a tightly run machine. Also like "CSI," it promises to rip subjects from the headlines. Next week's episode centers on the disappearance of an 11-year-old boy, a tender topic after months of child abductions highly profiled in the media. The series' knack for exploiting our national paranoias may not be exactly good for you, but it does make for some gripping moments.
The elegantly shot show is peppered with overhead views of the city that underscore how easy it is to go missing there. But tech credits mean nothing without good actors, and in LaPaglia "Trace" has a still, compelling center. He brings ballast and authority, and Jean-Baptiste (an Oscar nominee for "Secrets & Lies") is his female equal in the acting department. (Tonight, her character tosses off a "cheerio" in-joke about London; the actress plays a Yank here, but she's actually British.)
As for the rest of the cast, they're perfectly acceptable members of that Screen Actors Guild sub-demographic known in the TV biz as Eye Candy.
TV Reviews: CBS's 'Without a Trace' adds to TV crime scene
By Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV Editor
Another day, another procedural crime drama, as CBS rolls out "Without a Trace," a series designed to better hold the "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" audience and do battle with NBC's tired "ER."
"Without a Trace" (10 tonight, CBS), from "CSI" executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer, isn't the first series to deal exclusively with the cases of missing persons. ABC tried with the appropriately titled "Missing Persons" in 1993. Daniel J. Travanti and "CSI" regular Jorja Fox starred in that decent but short-lived series.
"Without a Trace" is a slickly shot, competent series with a talented ensemble cast. It's not revolutionary or groundbreaking by any means, but it is a decent crime drama.
Tonight's premiere follows the team, led by Anthony LaPaglia as FBI senior agent Jack Malone, as they try to find a missing marketing executive, played by "American Embassy" star Arija Bareikis.
Malone's colleagues have little definition so far, particularly Samantha Spade (Poppy Montgomery) and Vivian Johnson (Marianne Jean-Baptiste, talented star of "Secrets and Lies"). Rookie Martin Fitzgerald (Eric Close) butts heads with Danny Taylor (Enrique Murciano), who's envious of Fitzgerald's quick advancement.
The investigators work from a white dry-erase board in their Manhattan office, where they try to piece together a timeline of the missing person. Like so many other new fall dramas, it's all about solving a mystery, putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
"Without a Trace" is timely, eerily so, especially after all the cases of kidnapped children that drove the news this summer. Next week's episode features an 11-year-old who disappears on his birthday. The boy seems like an innocent victim until the FBI team begins to uncover the truth behind his disappearance.
Early episodes end on a relatively positive note, but producers say that won't always be the case. Some cases will go unsolved or end in the death of the missing person, but chances are those will be fewer in number than the FBI victories.
CBS also announced plans this week to run a 15-second profile of a real missing person at the end of each episode. The real FBI will provide information about the missing person.
LaPaglia Says New TV Show Is Easier
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) There is a big difference between Anthony LaPaglia's
old TV series, "Murder One," and the one he's in now, "Without a Trace."
"Without a Trace," a show about a missing persons unit in New York, was to debut Thursday night on CBS.
LaPaglia says "Murder One," a series about a law firm in Los Angeles, "became a show where they focused on one character" his.
"I had never done a TV series before," he said. "I think I was not emotionally equipped for it. I was unsuspecting at the time, and how much a TV series can take out of an actor. Very long hours, very long days, it's a big commitment. 'Murder One' was something I was unprepared for in terms of those things."
LaPaglia says "Without A Trace" is more of a group effort. All the actors don't revolve around his character. So, he's not carrying the whole show and the pressure's off him.
"Coming into this, now I know what to expect," he said. "It's easier, plus I have this tremendous ensemble cast with me.
"'Murder One' became a show where they focused on that one character.
"What I kept asking for back then was 'Give the whole cast a job, if they are lawyers, they should know what they are doing. I shouldn't have to be telling them what to do every week.'"
NEW YORK -- Just four days into the fall TV season, hits and misses are already emerging. And with 25 of the networks' 34 new series on the air, ABC -- desperate to rebuild -- is still on shaky ground.
"It's a two-network race between CBS and NBC," summed up Marc Berman, an analyst for Mediaweek Online.
That theory seemed borne out by Thursday's clash of titans: According to Nielsen Media Research, CBS' "Survivor: Thailand" was a solid runnerup to NBC's Friends-and-Scrubs combo; CSI: Crime Scene Investigation beat Will & Grace and Good Morning Miami; and crime drama Without a Trace premiered with about two-thirds the audience of ER, somewhat narrowing that show's usually huge lead.
Bottom line: NBC carried the night with a huge 25 percent share of the viewing audience but was closely followed by CBS with 21 percent.
"SURVIVOR," "CSI" BOOST CBS
CBS was also glowing Friday morning, saying their evening was their closest performance to NBC for a Thursday premiere night since the 1990-1991 season.
The network's "Survivor: Thailand" drew 21.4 million viewers, losing to "Friends" at 8 p.m. but beating the season premiere of NBC's hospital comedy "Scrubs" at 8:30 p.m.
At 9 p.m., the network's hit drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation drew an average of 29.9 million total viewers, the highest-rated and most-watched episode of the show's history.
A spinoff of the show, "CSI: Miami," debuted Monday night to 23.1 million viewers, the biggest audience for the September debut of a prime-time drama since NBC launched "ER" in 1994.
And at 10 p.m., the series premiere of "Without A Trace," a show about the FBI's missing persons unit, drew 16.7 million viewers, the network's best performance in the slot with a regular, first-run show since Feb. 1994.
Fox's Thursday lineup consisted of the feature film "Rush Hour."
Overall, NBC drew 24.9 million viewers for the night, followed by CBS at 22.7 million and ABC at 5.8 million.
UPDATED LISTINGS OF FILM PRODUCTIONS
CURRENTLY SHOOTING IN TORONTO, CANADA
The Ultimate Adventure Company (Adventure Inc.), June 17-Oct 29/02
