More Southland, Sin City, Avatar, Blade Runner, Girls and Veep coming. Simpsons and Legos parity Game of Thrones opening.

It was 20 years ago today… (No not Sergeant Pepper) that Johnny Carson retired from the Tonight Show. There will never be another like him.

We were so far behind on entertainment news that I couldn’t get it all put together in one afternoon. Here’s a continuation of even more news

 

In the links below check out…

Article and YouTube video interviewing the cast of The Walking Dead as they begin shooting season 3

Interview with actor who plays Jamie Lanister about the big upcoming battle in Game

Producers of Grimm talk about finale and what’s coming next season

Absolutely must see for fans of Game of Thrones fans: alternate versions of their opening sequence as done in Legos and as done by the Simpsons

Postmortem interview with producers of House after series finale last night. Also check out “May sweeps scorecard” embedded in the article

 

 

Not in the links below but also of interest…

A &E network has canceled Dog the Bounty Hunter

Morgan Freeman, Michael Douglas, and Robert De Niro are set to star in an upcoming comedy film called Last Vegas

Sin City: A Dame to Kill for will release to theaters October 4, 2013 starring Mickey Rourke and Jessica Alba

Ridley Scott will direct a sequel to Blade Runner

A&E has canceled Breakout Kings

TNT or Lifetime networks are considering picking up CBS’s recently canceled Unforgettable

Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy have signed up to star in a buddy cop movie

James Cameron reports he is not only making Avatar 2 and 3 but perhaps even 4. “I’m in the avatar business…period” although he may make some documentaries

HBO has renewed half-hour comedies Girls and Veep each for a second season of 10 episodes

TNT has ordered a new season of Southland

Breaking Bad returns to AMC July 15

 

 


‘The Walking Dead’ clip: Andrew Lincoln promises a ‘darker, harder, faster, deeper’ season 3


Jaime Lannister is as excited as you to see the Battle of the Blackwater


‘Grimm’ season finale: Bosses talk big reveal and what’s coming up in season 2!


‘Thrones’ credits tweaked by ‘Simpsons,’ Lego


House Boss David Shore Answers Burning Finale Qs, Addresses Cuddy, Foreman, Kutner Mysteries

 

Bee Gees become Bee Gee, CSI:NY in but Miami out, No More Sanctuary, Missing Is Missing, Revenge in, Ringer out, Two and Half Men in, Gifted Man out

I’m so far behind on entertainment news we’re only going to get halfway through it in this installment. We’ll have another installment in a day or two.

We start off this week’s entertainment news within RIP for Robin Gibbs of the Bee Gees passed away this week after a long illness. Thanks to his legacy of great music he will remain “Stayin’ Alive” in our hearts.

Went with friends this week to see Marvel Avengers in IMAX 3-D. Totally awesome if you’re a fan of the genre and not a bad action movie even if you aren’t a big comic hero fan. We saw 3-D trailers for the new Spiderman and the new sci-fi movie Prometheus which depending on who you talk to either is or is not a prequel to the Aliens series. Regardless of what is it looks very cool.

Heads up for an upcoming series on HBO called “The Newsroom” which will be written by West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin. The previews look really good. Speaking of West Wing, the new HBO comedy “Veep” is better than I thought it would be. While the humor is extremely dry and it helps to be a fan of Julia Louis Dreyfus, the political plots are actually pretty interesting. Over the first four episodes she is trying to push through a new clean jobs bill. The senator who agrees to help her sponsor the bill insist that no one from the oil industry be on the commission. The oil industry insists that someone be on the commission. She pick someone that neither side liked and got them to agree to it because it made everybody mad. Pretty cool politics. In the end the vice presidents clean jobs bill went down the tubes because the president himself wanted to focus on something different. She ended up having to cast a tie-breaking vote against her own proposal to stay loyal to the president. Pretty heady politics for a half-hour comedy show.

Because I was under the weather for a while and got tied up in other projects. Our entertainment news is way behind schedule. There are going to be articles that give you “sneak peeks” at season finales that have already been shown. But if you’re like me, your DVR is 98 percent full and you’ve not yet seen some of those season finales. So I’m going to include those kinds of articles anyway. There will also be articles that are postmortem commentary on season finales. If you’ve not seen them yet you may want to skip those.

 

In the links below to read about…

 

Fox renews Fringe for its fifth and final season of 13 episodes.

At the bottom of the Fringe article see the link to TVLine’s 2012 renewal scorecard

Preview of the season finale of “Once upon a Time”

Descriptions of new CW network shows including Beauty and the Beast and Arrow

Descriptions of 8 new ABC series picks up for the fall.

Postmortem interview with producers of Fringe about season finale.

Postmortem interview with producers of Once upon a Time about season finale.

Descriptions of 7 new CBS series including Elementary… A Sherlock Holmes reboot

Overview of complete NBC fall schedule

Overview of complete Fox fall schedule

Overview of complete ABC fall schedule

Overview of complete CBS fall schedule

Overview of complete CW network fall schedule

Complete grid of all network fall shows

Postmortem interview with producers of Bones about season finale and next season

Postmortem interview with producers of Scandal about season finale and next season

“Preview” of season finale of Grimm with its star

“Preview” of season finale of Nikita with producers

Postmortem of season finale of Nikita

 

Not in the links below but also of interest

NBC has picked up a sitcom pilot Save Me starring Anne Heche about a woman who starts channeling God after an accident. 13 episode order

NBC is also picked up a JJ Abrams/Eric Kripke action show Revolution. It’s a post apocalyptic world where all energy suddenly disappeared

NBC has picked up a White House comedy called 1600 Penn

NBC had picked up a about a “House like” veterinarian who likes animals but hates people.

NBC has renewed Law and Order:SVU and a new drama show called “Chicago Fire” about the Chicago fire Department

Demi Lovato & Britney Spears have signed on as judges for X factor

NBC has picked up a Jimmy Fallon produced sitcom called Guys with Kids

Fox has renewed Kiefer Sutherland’s Touch but sadly canceled Alcatraz and The Finder

Elaine Pompano, Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh, Justin Chambers, James Pickens Jr. and Chandra Wilson have signed two-year deals to continue on Gray’s anatomy

Despite Alcatraz cancellation Parminder Nagra will not be out of work. She will play a love interest for Gus on the upcoming season of Psych

ABC has canceled Cougar Town but it has been picked up by TBS

NBC has renewed Parenthood!

NBC has renewed 30 rock, community, and Parks and Recreation for possibly shortened seasons. 30 rock will be final season

NBC has renewed Whitney and Up All Night

ABC has renewed Once upon a Time, Revenge, Gray’s Anatomy, Castle, Dancing with the Stars,, Suburbatory, The Middle, and Modern Family

ABC has renewed Happy Endings

NBC has canceled Are You There Chelsea, Awake, Best Friends Forever, and Bent

We are sad to report that CW network has canceled Ringer. Although we found the finale quite satisfying.

CW has also canceled Secret Circle. CW has renewed Nikita and Heart of Dixie

NBC has canceled Harry’s Law and we are greatly disappointed.

CW has renewed Gossip Girl for a final season of just 11 episodes

NBC picks up a new series called Do No Harm that is sort of a Jekyll and Hyde type story. Also a soap opera called Infamous that sort of a ripoff of Revenge

ABC has renewed Scandal for a second season. I thought it was pretty good.

ABC cancels GCB, Pan Am, The River, none of which I will miss however I will miss Missing which was canceled. I thought it was pretty good.

ABC renews Private Practice, Body of Proof, Don’t Trust Apartment 23, Last Man Standing and picks up a Reba McIntyre sitcom Malibu County

CBS has renewed 2 1/2 men. It has canceled A Gifted Man

CBS has renewed CSI:NY however cancels CSI: Miami, Unforgettable, Rob, and NYC 22.

CBS has renewed Rules of Engagement

SyFy Channel announced Eureka will end July 16, meanwhile Warehouse 13 and Alphas will return July 23. Lost girl moves to Fridays at 10 PM beginning July 20. Sadly Sanctuary will not be returning.

 

 


Fox Renews Fringe For ‘Exciting and Climactic’ Fifth and Final Season

TVLine’s 2012 Renewal Scorecard has been updated with the news!


Once Upon a Time Bosses Tease a ‘Severely Intense’ Finale (Featuring a Lost-Style ‘Reset’?)


Fall TV Scoop: The CW Picks Carrie Diaries, Beauty and the Beast, Arrow and 2 Others


Fall TV: ABC Picks Up Connie Britton’s Nashville, Sarah Chalke’s Parents Plus 6 Others


Post Mortem: Fringe Boss Talks ‘Quiet’ Finale, the Final Season’s ‘Huge Payoff’ and [Spoiler]’s ‘Fate’


Once Upon a Time’s Josh Dallas: ‘Crazy-Bananas’ Finale ‘Is Like a Train That Won’t Stop!’


Fall TV Scoop: CBS Picks Up Seven Series, Including Sherlock Reboot, Urie Sitcom


NBC Fall Schedule Revealed: Community Moving, Smash Delayed — Watch New Show Clips!


Fox Fall Schedule Revealed: Glee Shifts to Thursday, Touch Moves to Friday and More!


ABC Schedule Revealed: Revenge Moving to Sunday, Happy Endings and Apt. 23 to Tuesday


CBS Schedule Revealed: Two and a Half Men on the Move, Mentalist Sees New Home on Sunday


The CW’s Schedule Revealed: Supernatural and Arrow Team Up on Wednesday, Dixie to Tuesday


Fall TV Grid: What’s on When? And Versus What?


Bones Boss Answers Burning Finale Questions, Confirms Season 8 Time Jump and More!


Shonda Rhimes Weighs In on Scandal Season 1, the Finale’s Killer Reveal and Fitz’s Future


Grimm Star David Giuntoli Says Finale ‘Holds All the Answers,’ Teases Season 2


Nikita Boss Teases a Major ‘Paradigm Shift’ and the Death of a ‘Fan Favorite’ In the Season Finale


Exclusive Post Mortem: Nikita Boss Reveals Why [Spoiler] Had to Die — and What’s Next!

 

Who Wrote “Imagine” Lennon or Lenin?

Last night on American Idol Josh Ledet sang John Lennon’s classic ballad “Imagine” and Judge Randy Jackson asked him why he chose that song. Josh responded with something about inspiring lyrics. I too was surprised that someone who is very open about their faith and their church background would choose this particular song.

While the lyrics you talk about peace, love, tolerance, charity or anti-materialism all of which could be considered Christian values, the song is actually at its core anti-religious. You don’t have to go very far into the song to see this. After all the opening line is “Imagine there’s no heaven…” I did notice that Josh skip the verse with the line” imagine… no religion too” but he did sing the opening line which proposes that there is no heaven or hell.

It’s always seemed to me that the basic premise of the song was that most of the things that are wrong with this world are attributed both to religion and if we got rid of religion we could have all of that peace and love and brotherhood.

This song makes a good point. How many wars have been fought between Christians and Jews, Christians and Muslims, Jews and Muslims. This despite the fact that all three of those major religions espouse the remaining concepts of this song which are peace, love, brotherhood etc. History shows us even further that even within these major religions Protestants and Catholics have been a war with each other within Christianity for centuries. Sunni and Shiite Muslims are currently killing each other by the hundreds and thousands. At least the Reformed Jews and Orthodox Jews while they might disagree with each other vehemently don’t seem to be at war with one another at least not to the extent that the other intramural religious disagreements have turned to violence.

It’s not so much that religion itself is at fault for the ills of the world. It is religious hypocrisy that is at fault. Like I said before the core beliefs of these religions promote peace and brotherhood. However John Lennon’s lyrics do not denounce hypocrisy… They denounce religion in broad strokes.

There is also an undertone in the song denouncing nationalism and patriotism. Lines like” nothing to kill or die for” hint at nationalism and patriotism as being as guilty as religion in what’s wrong with the world. Again to a certain extent guilty as charged. We are a nation founded on freedom and we take great pride in that and are justified in making military sacrifices to defend freedom. But sometimes it’s our vision of freedom being imposed on others.

 

So anyway I’m always surprised when someone who is outwardly religious and/or patriotic endorses a song like “Imagine”. It is a very beautifully written song with a haunting melody and indeed inspiring lyrics with which I agree about 85% and I’m presuming it’s that similar 85% worth of inspiring lyrics that inspired Josh to choose that song. He did a wonderful job performing it.

But did he really pay attention to everything he was singing? Does he really believe that the world would be better off without religion and without pride in one’s country? My guess is he didn’t. I’ll give Josh an “A+” for performance and “D-” for song choice. If he wanted an inspirational song by a former Beatle that would’ve sent the same mood and shown off his vocal talents to the same degree he should’ve sang “Let It Be”.