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By AndrewWarren
TV Media
Animated celebrity:
Sunday nights
belong to the cartoons.
Fox’s Sunday night “Animation Dom-
ination” block dominated the night
with slapstick gags and heartfelt
laughs, and this year’s seasons of “The
Simpsons,”“Bob’s Burgers,”“Family
Guy” and “American Dad” are looking
like they won’t disappoint.With a list of
guest stars long enough to be the script
for its own show, these animated come-
dies are calling the shots as all four
have their season premieres Sunday,
Sept. 29.
As “The Simpsons” marches into its
landmark 25th season (making it the
longest-running American scripted
prime-time series in history), Kristen
Wiig (“Despicable Me,” 2010) marches
into Springfield in the season premiere
as a high-strung FBI agent. Other guest
stars who will be lending their voices
this season include comics legend Stan
Lee (“Iron Man 3”, 2013), Anderson
Cooper (“Anderson Cooper 360°”), Eva
Longoria (“Desperate Housewives”)
and Daniel Radcliffe (the “Harry Potter”
franchise), to name just a few.
Not to be outdone, the fourth season
of the Emmy-nominated series “Bob’s
Burgers” is also offering up a bevy of
guest voices, includingWill Forte
(“Gravity Falls”), Matt Walsh (“Veep”)
and Jordan Peele (“Key and Peele”).
The somewhat-more-adult “Family
Guy’s” premiere is certainly pulling out
some big guns. Maroon 5 front man and
“The Voice” coach Adam Levine will be
voicing an animated version of himself,
alongside former “Simpsons” writer
and current late-night talk show host
Conan O’Brien (“Conan”). But even
these two heavy hitters aren’t enough:
the two front men from “Two and a Half
Men,”Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer,
will also be lending their voice talents
to the celebrity-packed premiere, with
even more celebrities lined up through-
out the season.
Last up is “American Dad,” but it’s
not scraping the bottom
of the barrel with
its guests. Zooey
Deschanel (“New
Girl”) is lined up
to guest star, along
with musical legend
Mariah Carey (“Lee
Daniels’ The Butler,”
2013), Stanley Tucci
(“The Hunger
Games,”
2012) and so
many more.
The four
animated
programs already dominate Sunday
nights for Fox, and the list of celebrity
guest stars lined up for the season
should certainly help solidify their sta-
tus.
Williamson’s return:
Looks like Hall-
mark is at it again.
The roaring success of its first origi-
nal scripted prime-time series, “Cedar
Cove,” has revealed a pent-up demand
for family-friendly inspirational pro-
gramming that the cable network is
rushing to tap. One of the promising-
looking projects in the pipeline is the
upcoming “Signed, Sealed & Deliv-
ered,” which premieres as a two-hour
movie the evening of Oct. 12. In what’s
becoming par for the course with Hall-
mark, the movie will serve as a pilot for
a potential new prime-time series.
The buzz around “Signed, Sealed &
Delivered” is focused on its creator and
executive producer. In her much buzzed
about return to television, the visionary
behind “Touched by an Angel,”Martha
Williamson, is bringing her magic touch
to the new series.
“Signed, Sealed & Delivered” is a
heartwarming story about a group of
postal detectives. Their mission: to de-
liver packages and letters from the past
whenever they’re needed most.
It’s just the sort of inspirational fare
that Hallmark is known for, and as al-
ways it has signed on some real talent
to bring it to life. Among the actors
signed on to the project are Kristin
Booth (“The Newsroom”), Eric Mabius
(“Ugly Betty”), Geoff Gustafson (“Pri-
meval: NewWorld”), Crystal Lowe
(“Smallville”) and Daphne Zuniga
(“One Tree Hill”).
The network’s had a lot of success
with its recent foray
into scripted dra-
mas, and with
Williamson
working
with such a
list of tal-
ented ac-
tors,
“Signed,
Sealed &
Deliv-
ered” will certainly hit the ground run-
ning. The potential series is slated for
2014.
Laughing late:
Comedy Central is en-
tering into a new relationship with
Dave Attell.
The standup comedian is launching a
new late-night, eight-episode series on
the network, along with a one-hour
standup special, with both set to pre-
miere some time next year.
The as-of-yet untitled series will be
hosted by Attell and will feature both
up-and-comers and established funny
folk as we’ve never seen them before:
completely uncensored. It’s a celebra-
tion of comics at their most authentic,
speaking off the cuff.
This is just the latest venture that At-
tell has entered into with Comedy Cen-
tral. His style of humor certainly isn’t for
everyone — it’s been politely described
as “very adult”— but that certainly
hasn’t damaged his brand. His late-
night travel series, “Insomniac with
Dave Attell,” aired from 2001 to 2004
and has continued on with many one-
off specials. He also headlined a revival
of an iconic TV show with “The Gong
Show with Dave Attell” in 2008.
Befitting a network that’s all about
the laughs, Kent Alterman, president of
content development and original pro-
gramming, had his tongue in cheek dur-
ing the announcement of the new se-
ries. “When I was first approached for
this, I thought someone said ‘Dave
Chappelle,’” he said, referring to the
better-known comedian. “I immediate-
ly said yes. I love Dave Attell, too, so it’s
all fine.”
Be-
sides
his
own
pro-
grams,
Attell’s
worked as
a contributor
to “The Daily
Show with Jon
Stewart” and is
frequently a panel-
ist on “Tough Crowd
with Colin Quinn.”
He’s had numerous
standup specials, and
has even released a come-
dy CD.
Stars
on
Screen
Bart, Homer,
Marge,Maggie
and Lisa as
seen in “The
Simpsons”
Gary Ceremunga
2 x 2
By AdamThomlison
TV Media
Q: How does Alex Trebek read
every question without tripping
over the big words or words in
other languages?
A: The “how” of “Jeopardy” host
Alex Trebek’s pronunciation is fairly
unremarkable, but the “why” reveals
a bit more about America’s favorite
man of trivia.
The show doesn’t do “rehearsals”
in the normal sense, of course — the
contestants can’t have seen the ques-
tions before being taped or it would
ruin the whole thing.
However, in an interview with Ask-
Men.com, Trebek said he spends
about an hour and a half alone going
over the questions and answers
ahead of taping, so that he’ll know
the answers and, presumably, to prac-
tice any tricky pronunciations.
He is a professional, after all. He
hosted a few other game shows and
was a news broadcaster before set-
tling into his most famous gig.
But he admits that getting the pro-
nunciations right is a sort of obses-
sion of his, and he says it has to do
with his childhood.
His mother was French-Canadian,
but his father could only speak Eng-
lish — that meant Trebek grew up (in
Sudbury, Ont., by the way) speaking
both languages in the house.
It gave him a care for language
that he brought with him to the show.
But the nature of the show itself fig-
ures in as well.
“I’m the host of a show that deals
with bright people. It would not look
good for the host to be mispronounc-
ing words. So, if contestants mispro-
nounce words, I will not correct them; I
will just say, ‘Yes,’ and give the correct
pronunciation right after,” he toldAsk-
Men.com. “I do not want to put the
contestants down, but I want to indi-
cate to people that this would be the
correct pronunciation of the word.”
And if this sounds like stuffiness on
his part, most argue it’s not. A profile
of the host in the “Washington Post”
said that, “Even off-camera, he talks
in his soothing-yet-stilted hosting
voice, but endears himself to the audi-
ence with his affability and his shar-
ing of personal mundanities.”
That’s a stuffy way of saying he’s a
nice guy.
Q: Is the FX drama “The Ameri-
cans” related to the George Cloo-
ney movie of the same name?
A: Technically they don’t have quite
the same name —George Clooney’s
2010 movie was called “The Ameri-
can,” singular (and fair enough, since
his character spends most of his time
alone) — and in fact they are totally
unrelated.
Fair mistake, though. Not only are
the names similar, to say the least, but
both are espionage-themed interna-
tional thrillers.
The FX series “The Americans” is
about a pair of Soviet spies hiding out
in America, while Clooney’s film is
about an American assassin hiding
out in Italy.
It’s worth noting that the title for
the film only came later. It’s based on
a novel by Martin Booth called “A
Very Private Gentleman,” first pub-
lished in 1990. However, after the re-
lease of the film, the book itself was
re-released as “The American: Previ-
ously Published as A Very Private Gen-
tleman.”
The “gentleman” that Clooney
plays is quite private, indeed. As men-
tioned, he spends most of the film
alone, we never learn his real name,
and it’s never entirely clear what he
really does for a living or who he
works for.
This is another difference from the
FX series, which over its 12-episode
first season has provided plenty of in-
formation about its characters, and is
in fact based on the real story of Rus-
sian spies working for years in the
United States, pretending to be a cou-
ple and even raising a family together.
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