Chicago - A message from the station manager

New Chicago Series Supposedly Like Hot Fuzz Meets Murder, She Wrote

Or Brooklyn Nine-One-One Meets Cheaters, Which Is It?

Over the transom.
“Arrow & Key Productions unleashes the pilot episode of UNDER COVERS, a new web series filmed and independently produced in Chicago. UNDER COVERS is created by Chicago native, Carlo Lorenzo Garcia, who has recently worked on episodes of EMPIRE (Fox TV) and CHICAGO PD (NBC). The pilot episode is directed by Elena Muntean, whose film credits include GIMME SHELTER, COWL GIRL, and OUT OF SIGHT.
“UNDER COVERS follows the lives and mishaps of two amateur PIs who take on crimes of the heart, all while trying to find their own way towards happiness. After a dry spell at In & Out Detective Agency, McClusky & Cortez go undercover to suss out a possible cheating girlfriend who proves to be a better ally than adversary; the guys have to maneuver quickly to save the case and more importantly, the case fee. It’s a Crime Comedy that takes the quirkiness of Brooklyn Nine-Nine gets it drunk and has a one-night stand with Cheaters.”
–
Eh, mildly entertaining but I can’t see it sticking. Here’s the first episode:

Read More

Posted on April 27, 2015

Chicago Dude In A Raft Or Something

By Steve Rhodes

Hi there,
I hope this note finds you well!
Well, I had a pretty shitty week actually. Wait, who are you again?
Thought you might be interested that a Chicago resident, Daniel Eller, will be a featured contestant on this week’s episode of National Geographic Channel’s new ultimate ocean survival series, The Raft.
Go on.
In the program, Dan is stranded on a life raft with a stranger in the Bermuda Triangle without food or water. The goal is to survive one week.
One week? That’ll be a pretty short series! Plus, the Bermuda Triangle isn’t really a thing, you know.
Tune in this Sunday, April 26th at 10PM/ET to see how Dan fares. See below for more details on Sunday’s episode.
I’m pretty sure he lived.

Read More

Posted on April 24, 2015

The Bigger Brian Williams Scandal: The News He Kept Off The Air Pt. 2

By Steve Rhodes

Now comes Vanity Fair with a rather anticlimactic examination of L’Affair Williams, which, like its counterpart in New York, focuses mainly on the dull and onerous office politics of NBC executives and whether they held their “talent’s” hands well enough to keep enormous egos satisfied instead of the actual manufacturing of the news. (The piece is framed as “Inside The Civil War For The Soul Of NBC News,” but we already know that network news has no soul.)
The piece does, though, buttress the more important nugget both publications bury as an aside when it’s really the whole ballgame.
First, what New York reported in our first post on the matter, which is essential reading because of what it reveals about Williams’ attitude toward investigative reporting as well as its link to a Beachwood Radio Hour revelation of Williams mocking critics arguing that he is somehow “hiding” the news. Turns out he was.
Now, what Vanity Fair has to say:

Read More

Posted on April 7, 2015