Category Archives: TV

“Drive” Cancelled

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After only four episodes Drive has been officially cancelled.  I’ve got to admit that this caught me by surprise.  I knew the show wasn’t getting great ratings, but I wasn’t expecting Fox to cut their losses so quickly.  It would have been nice if they gave it a chance to build an audience. 

Here’s what Kristen at E! has to say about the cancellation:

Update on Drive: I just got an email from a very highly placed source inside the show, who sadly tells me about the reports of Drive’s cancellation:

“Confirmed. Gone. No word on DVDs, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up. You’re sweet for supporting the show” it’s greatly appreciated, for what it’s worth.”
 
Studio sources tell me, “I’m hearing it is being pulled from Mondays” we have two remaining episodes that have been produced”waiting to hear if they will air (and where).”  Four hours of the show had aired; six were in the can. No word yet on DVDs, but if you live in some far off place where Drive had yet to tour, you can read episode scripts over at http://www.timminear.net/archives/drive/000146.html.

Thanks to Lee Ann for the info.

Craig Writing “Drive”

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I did a double take yesterday when I saw Craig Silverstein’s name appear as the writer for last night’s episode of Drive.  Nice surprise.  I guess Craig is making good use of the time Standoff is on hiatus and Fox is making good use of this very talented writer that they have under contract.

Speaking of Standoff, it’s scheduled to come back on Friday, June 8, 2007 at 9/8 central.  I’ve got to say that I’m a bit nervous for Craig, because Standoff getting moved to Fridays is not a good sign. 

If you want to catch up on any episodes you missed, go to the Standoff MySpace page.

Follow Up to “Drive”

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So Paul Ben-Victor’s performance last night in Drive reminded me a lot of Bobby Hobbes…a lot of the same mannerisms.  Anybody else see that? 

I love that Greg Yaitanes twittered a shout out to The Invisible Man when he wrote, “the truck driver is played by Paul Ben Victor who played VINTAGE Bobby Hobbes on the Invisible Man. Which I directed.”  He could have just as easily named another role that Paul is known for, but he chose I-Man.  Yes! 

If you missed Paul’s performance last night, no problem, you can watch it right now on Drive’s MySpace page!  The name of the episode is “Partners.”  I just love that networks are starting to stream TV shows on the Web.

Greg Yaitanes in the Driver’s Seat AND Paul Ben-Victor Plays a Truck Driver

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One of the I-Man directors that I like to keep track of is Greg Yaitanes.  Back in 2003, Greg did a SciFi.com chat with fans for his movie Children of Dune.  During the chat he graciously acknowledged The Invisible Man and all the dedicated and hopeful I-Man fans (myself included) who came to the chat with “Save I-Man” in front of their handles.  Some of you old timers might remember that. 

In addition, Greg has hired Paul Ben-Victor for an episode of Alias and Fastlane, Vincent Ventresca for an episode of Cold Case and, of course, who could forget when he put Vince and Paul together for an episode of Las Vegas. 

But it doesn’t end there.  Tonight is the premiere of Greg’s new show Drive and Paul has a guest role as a truck driver.  The show has a (very unusual) two-night three-hour premiere, with the first two hours airing tonight at 8:00 p.m./7:00 p.m. central and the third hour airing tomorrow at 8:00 p.m./7:00 p.m. central on FOX (check your local listings). 

Greg not only directs the pilot in this series, but he also steps out of his usual director role to become one of the executive producers of the show.  During tonight’s premiere, Greg will be twittering live a director’s commentary while the show is airing.  I can’t say I’m familiar with how twittering works, but it appears that you can access Greg’s comments via text messaging on your phone, instant messaging, or the twitter foxdrive web page.  If you’re interested in participating and new to twittering, it would be a good idea to get signed up early and explore the website to get familiar with the service and how it works. 

One of the things I find fascinating about this new series is that most of the action is done via visual effects.  Greg, along with the Visual Effects Supervisor, Loni Peristere, takes us behind the scenes in this interesting video interview at ifilm that explains how the visuals effects are done.

Articles, Reviews and Interviews

Zap2it From Inside the Box – “Review:  Fox’s Drive”

The Chronicle Herald – “Computers driving force behind series”

Movieweb – Drive Races Into High Gear on Fox!

Drive Fans – EXCLUSIVE: An Interview with Greg Yaitanes

The Hollywood Reporter – Yaitanes steering Fox’s ‘Drive’

Mike and Jason Need Our Help!

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As a follow up to Friday’s post, I want to remind everyone that your vote is very much needed to help Mike McCafferty and Jason Makiaris’ show L33t Haxxors Episode 2 get on VH1’s Acceptable TV this Friday.  If they don’t get enough votes, their show doesn’t air…simple as that.  And that would be a shame!

Time is short as Jason informs me that the voting ends Wednesday afternoon.  So please take a minute and go the Acceptable TV website and vote.  Jason has written some great instructions, complete with pictures, on how to register and vote, which I’m copying and pasting below for you.

Mike, Ben and Jason

 Vote Counts

Hi Everybody!

Hopefully some of you caught our big VH1 debut last Friday night. Thanks for all of your help and well wishes! A number of you have mentioned that you voted (which is great) and a number need some more info.

Time is quickly running out to vote for our show “L33t Haxxors Episode 2” on the Acceptable.TV website. (if you missed episode 1, click here)

We’d like to be the first user-submitted show in the history of AcceptableTV to return for a second episode. You can help us conquer Hollywood with a simple click of your mouse. There are 7 easy steps to helping us do this:

Step 1. Log on to the Acceptable.TV site. We’ve made it easy for you. Just click on the link here. 

Step 1

Step 2. Click on “register” at the top right of the page to sign up for an account. (You will not receive any sort of spam or unwanted e-mail as a result of signing up.)

Step 2

Step 3. Fill out the fields with your information with a vaild e-mail address so that you’ll receive your registration confirmation.

Step 3

Step 4. Make sure that you have checked the box signifying that you accept the user-agreement and the box verifying that you are over the age of 18. Then click “submit my info”.

Step 4

Step 5. Go to your e-mail account, where you should find an e-mail that looks like the following. Click on the link to confirm your account.

Step 5

Step 6. Once you are brought back to the AcceptableTV page by the link, make sure that you are logged in. From AcceptableTV’s home page, scroll down to the user submitted show section in red. Find our show on the list, and click on it.

Step 6

Step 7. At the top of our video’s page, you will see a list of eligible videos to choose from. Click on the heart with “vote for this video” next to it.

Step 7

The heart should change into text that says “You Voted For This Video.”

Step 8

That’s it!

We appreciate the support and, hopefully, you’ll see us on your picture boxes this Friday night!

– Jason

Mike and Jason on VH1 Tonight!

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This is cutting it very close for those of you who are on the east coast, but I just got home from work so I’m just now able to post this.  I got emails today from both Mike McCafferty and Jason Makiaris.  Though they didn’t specify, I’m going to make the assumption that they want me to pass this on to all of you.  In the interest of saving time, which is very short, I’m just going to copy and paste each of their emails below.

Hope you can watch and vote!

From Mike:

Hey all,

A double dose of me tonight, 10pm on VH1’s Department of Acceptable Media show.  DAM is an offshoot of Channel 101 where short films compete to return the following week.

First I am in a skit where I play…well, I play a rapist (start jokes..now).  It’s actually a funny show called Circue du Soliel: SVU so it’s not as bad as it sounds.

Second, I co-wrote a show called “l33t Haxxors” that won their weekly online contest and will be screened on the show tonight.  It’s about 2 Elite Hackers who get in serious trouble.  Evidentially, VH1 liked it so much that they asked us to shoot a second episode, which will be in competition on www.acceptable.tv.  So after the show, log on to the website and vote for “l33t Haxxors 2”! 

If you can’t wait to see “l33t” you can see it here,
http://one.revver.com/watch/208011

Thanks!

Mike

From Jason:

Hey Everybody,

Just a quick note to let you all know that a show that Mike McCafferty, Ben Pluimer and I have put together is airing tonight on VH1.  Acceptable TV is on at 10pm Eastern and Pacific (check your local listings to be sure).

Many of you know that I’ve been involved with something called Channel 101 for years now. With the help of executive producer Jack Black and
Channel 101 co-creators Dan Harmon/Rob Schrab, 101 has now branched off into a TV show called Acceptable TV which premiered last week. The same principles apply. If you like one of the mini-shows, vote for it and it returns the next week.

Our show tonight is called “L33t Haxxors”. Ben Pluimer wrote it with Mike, I shot it and wrote the music. We’ve already shot episode two
(which Mike and I appear in), and we could use your help next week to get it back in the show. I’ll send another e-mail next week letting you
know how you can vote to keep us in.

You can see more about Acceptable TV and our show at http://www.acceptable.tv/

You can see our other videos on our YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/shipoffoolsprod

Hope everyone is doing great!

Jason