Television
Music
Stomp the House
When concerts appeal to preschoolers, what does that mean for their parents?
February 16th, 2012
The Fresh Beats have been rocking out on Nick Jr. since the summer of 2009, playing a brand of radio-ready pop that’s kid-friendly (especially if your kids are between 2 and 5 years old) to a fault. Stars Thomas Hobson, 27, (Shout), Jon Beavers, 30, (Twist), Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, 25, (Kiki), and Tara Perry, 26, (replacing Shayna Rose as Marina) play four (roughly) teenage music school students who solve problems and make music together. Read more »
Television
So ‘Bad’ It’s Good
Bad Girls Club: Las Vegas has no redeeming value, but it’s damn entertaining
January 19th, 2012
The Oxygen network can’t stay out of Las Vegas. Already on board with Bachelorette Party: Las Vegas, which debuted this fall, the network brings the eighth season of its Bad Girls Club to the place where bad girl-dom is just the opening bid. BGC, to those of us in the know, takes seven broads with more issues than a comic book collection—described oh-so-charitably in the official literature as “young, bold, outrageous and endlessly entertaining,” but would have been in the pre-reality days merely “kind of bitchy”—and jams them in a house for three months. In the earlier seasons, there was a pretext to self-improvement, volunteerism and becoming good role models. Read more »
Saving the Boob Tube
Yo Gabba Gabba! is the cure for bad kids' TV, and if it cashes in on its success, all the better
November 24th, 2011
We’re in America, dammit, and we certainly can’t escape the engine of our capitalistic democracy: commercialism. Nor would we want to. But that doesn’t mean kids’ TV has to suck. There had to be a solution. A happy middle ground, a place where capitalism meets consumer demand and creates smart, fun and wildly creative children’s television. In 2007, when my kids had pretty much grown out of the demographic, I finally found the show that represents the paradigm of American exceptionalism: Nick Jr’s Yo Gabba Gabba! Read more »
A&E
Creativity, Unscripted
From gigolos to trailer parks, Marklen Kennedy mines the underbelly of Las Vegas—and his own past—for gutsy reality-TV ideas
November 10th, 2011
In his new role as reality show creator, Marklen Kennedy takes it all in while a producer sits next to the camera and asks the same set of questions to each visitor. It’s all in an effort to find cast members for Trailer Park Housewives, a Vegas-based reality show that will focus on the lives of six women living in a mobile home park. Once the right cast and network are found, he’d like the show to air this spring. Read more »
Television
Soul Mates
Wedding bells ring when Las Vegas bachelorette parties meet reality TV
October 20th, 2011
The Girl Scouts of America recently conducted a survey that shows tween and teen girls who regularly watch reality television are more likely to expect a higher level of drama, aggression and bullying in girl-on-girl friendships. Hide your cookies, sisters. Read more »
Small-Screen Scares
Las Vegas’ Bagans agitates apparitions on the new season of Ghost Adventures
September 22nd, 2011
There are about as many ghost-hunting shows on TV these days as there are spooks in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, and the genre’s format is about as predictable as the ride: knock around in dark, creepy places with a night-vision camera and act frightened/surprised occasionally. Read more »
Television
Ante Up!
Picking the winners for TV’s biggest night.
September 15th, 2011
The 63rd annual Emmy Awards ceremony—those magical three-plus hours of television during which you stop watching regular TV shows to watch people who appear on TV shows looking nervous while wearing industrial-strength Spanx—airs on Sunday, and I couldn’t be more excited. Read more »
A&E Fall Preview: TV
Think Inside the Box
Fall premieres bring female leads, couples’ capers, high-concept dramas and a few Mad Men clones
September 1st, 2011
It seems like just yesterday that I was bemoaning the summer TV drought, resigning myself to three long months of watching people wearing helmets and their last remaining scraps of dignity bounce painfully off of giant rubber balls. But hallelujah, brothers and sisters; salvation has arrived, for September is upon us. Read more »
Television
Dark Crystal
Now in its fourth season, Breaking Bad shows no signs of looking up
July 21st, 2011
If you’ve seen seasons 1, 2 and 3 of Breaking Bad, I’m going to assume that you have excellent taste, a morbid fascination with either drug kingpins or Albuquerque, N.M., real estate, and, under duress, could probably whip up a passable batch of methamphetamines in an RV while wearing only underpants and a gas mask … and also that you don’t require spoiler alerts. If you haven’t seen Vince Gilligan’s dark series about a cancer-stricken chemistry teacher who “breaks bad” to keep his family afloat and do require spoiler alerts, then I applaud you for jumping in now. You’ll need a pitch helmet and a strong stomach. Read more »
Television
‘Tuning’ in to local music
June 30th, 2011
Chad Plummer wants to educate the public about the other scene in Las Vegas. Forget nightclubs and their performances by mainstream pop stars, Plummer is hoping to “showcase musical acts that would normally fall outside the mainstream perception of ‘Vegas entertainment.’” Read more »
