LAST RESTAURANT STANDING: The incroyable Chef Raymond Blanc and his elite team of restaurant managers have returned for another season of putting aspiring restauranteurs through their paces. Last night’s opener was a doozy with Raymond aghast at one woman who decided to open a tin of coconut milk with a large kitchen knife. Upon seeing this in the kitchen, the usually unflappable Blanc stepped in and told the woman she would hurt herself opening a tin that way and then demonstrated how the can opener worked. Once again, LRS promises lots of fun and very tough competition this season. New episodes air Tuesday nights at 9pm on BBC America. If you’re missing TOP CHEF, watch LRS and your food competition show hunger will be sated.
EVERY DAY OF MY F–KING LIFE: I’ve been meaning to talk about this HBO documentary since I watched it over the holiday break and I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s about Wendy Maldonado, a battered wife who wound up killing her husband. When Wendy tells her story about marrying the guy as a teenager, she confesses that shortly thereafter, she realized he was crazy and violent. Too scared to leave, she had four sons with the guy and suffered continual abuse by his hand almost every day – hence the title. It’s a heartbreaking story as the filmmakers were with Wendy and her family for the last four days before she went to jail and she talks about meeting her husband and the slow horror that unfolded after their wedding. Her eldest son Randy is also serving time as he aided her in the crime. It was determined the murder was not premeditated but Randy had seen his father hurt his mother so many times over the years that he feared something like this would happen. I don’t know if the documentary is still available for viewing on HBO On Demand; if it’s not, it’s well worth renting.
TONIGHT’S DOCUMENTARY: CNBC’s MARRIAGE FROM HELL: THE BREAKUP OF AOL TIME WARNER. This docu airs tonight at 10pm on CNBC; details from CNBC PR are below. I watched Steve Case & Gerald Levin on CNBC earlier this week and for me, the reason to watch this is Levin. If you’re not familiar with his story, after the AOL TW debaucle, he left the company in disgrace, and then adding to his misfortune, his son was shot and killed by some thug kids he taught at a school in NYC. Levin wound up in Los Angeles where he started Moonview Sanctuary with his new-ish wife Laurie Perlman. For that story, and it’s fascinating, read the 2007 NEW YORK magazine profile of Levin:
http://nymag.com/news/features/34454/
When I watched Levin talk about the disastrous fallout from the merger in his now customary zenspeak, I was compelled and intrigued by the fact that he’s no longer the tough-talking media mogul. His whole mien is a quieter, almost beaten version of his former self. I’m very curious to see this documentary.
“Building on a documentary first reported by Faber in 2003, MARRIAGE FROM HELL: THE BREAKUP OF AOL TIME WARNER tells the inside story of how one of the most momentous deals in history came together -and disastrously fell apart-with new insight from its chief architects: Gerald Levin and Steve Case. Faber sits down for an unflinching interview with Levin, the former CEO and Chairman of Time Warner who was vilified for making the deal. Levin speaks with unprecedented candor both about his professional regrets involving the merger and his personal regrets about returning to work so soon after the tragic death of his son, and grants a peek into the new life he has crafted for himself today. The program also features reaction to the breakup from Steve Case, the former CEO of AOL, who discusses why he stepped down from AOL Time Warmer.
The one-hour documentary also gives viewers an inside look at a merger that was troubled from the outset through interviews with some of the of the top media moguls of our time including Sumner Redstone, owner and CEO of Viacom, Inc.; Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO, News Corp.; Michael Eisner, former Chairman and CEO, The Walt Disney Company; Barry Diller, Chairman; and CEO, IAC; and John Malone, founder and Chairman, Liberty Media Group.”
IN CASE YOU’RE WONDERING: LIE TO ME is not cancelled, it will return this spring or summer.
PORTIA DE ROSSI: If you haven’t been watching the BETTER OFF TED episodes ABC is foolishly burning off, you’re missing some really wondrous moments from Portia De Rossi. She’s spectacularly funny in this show and while that’s no surprised to ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT fans, it’s abundantly clear De Rossi needs to be snapped up by another show pronto since ABC isn’t showing TED any of the love it so richly deserves. I think the entire TED cast is sharp, funny and blessed with killer timing. I think they all deserve to go on to shows that are supported more vigorously. But when it comes to De Rossi, I have to agree with the groundswell of opinion that likens her to Jane Lynch in that she gets a laugh no matter what she’s saying and when she’s given great lines – as she is in on TED – she shines like a klieg light at a Hollywood premiere.
MEANWHILE: ABC ordered more episodes of COUGAR TOWN. Which really ticks me off when TED is far more deserving of support and airtime than the hit or miss COUGAR TOWN. I understand ABC likes having a big TV star like Courteney Cox in their stable and that they want to stay in business with Bill Lawrence but this show isn’t even HALF as comedically strong as TED. Maybe they could just shift Busy Phillips, the funniest person on COUGAR TOWN, to TED? Just thinking out loud. Lots of guest stars in ABC’s comedy lineup tonight: look for Brooke Shields on THE MIDDLE, Benjamin Bratt on MODERN FAMILY and Lisa Kudrow on COUGAR TOWN.
COUNTING THE HOURS UNTIL: Sunday’s BIG LOVE and CHUCK season premieres!
TODAY’S SURF WRITTEN WHILE LISTENING TO: “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love (Baby)” by Sarah Vaughn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA9mxA9B0OQ
Tonight’s rundown:
ABC: The Middle (special time period), The Middle, Modern Family, Cougar Town, Ugly Betty (time period premiere)
Brooke Shields guests on THE MIDDLE.
Benjamin Bratt guests as Mann’s unreliable dad on MODERN FAMILY.
Lisa Kudrow guests on COUGAR TOWN.
CBS: I Get That a Lot (special), People’s Choice Awards
Queen Latifah hosts the People’s Choice Awards.
NBC: Mercy, Law & Order: SVU, Jay Leno Show
It was announced yesterday that James Van Der Beek will be visiting MERCY hospital for a bit. His recurring role will be as a womanizing ICU chief.
FOX: Glee (repeat), Glee (repeat)
More GLEE-peats tonight and thankfully, the episodes are just as good on replay as they were the first time!
CW: One Tree Hill (repeat), Gossip Girl (repeat)
PBS: The Human Spark (special), This Emotional Life (special, part 3)
A&E: Dog the Bounty Hunter, Steven Segal: Lawman
BRAVO: Launch My Line
D101: Friday Night Lights
Discovery Channel: Man vs. Wild (returns from hiatus)
FX: 10pm: Nip/Tuck (season premiere of the final 9 episodes)
History: Apocalypse Man (special)
MTV: 10pm: The Real World: D.C.
Planet Green: Big Chef Takes on Little Chef (series debut), Living With Ed, Conviction Kitchen (series debut)
Showtime: Inside the NFL
Sundance Channel: Elvis Costello With…: Elvis himself is in the spotlight tonight as XXXXXX
Syfy: Ghost Hunters (winter premiere)
TBS: Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns
TOON: Destroy Build Destroy
truTV: Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura
Versus: Sports Jobs with Junior Seau
That’s a wrap for now.
