Twin Peaks: Conversation With The Stars

I have been a massive fan of Twin Peaks since it first aired in the early 1990s while I was in high school. I even had a series finale party for the final episode with coffee, doughnuts and cherry pie on offer. When the show was resurrected last year for Twin Peaks: The Return I eagerly watched each week's episode and was happy to be returned to the intricate world created by David Lynch and Mark Frost.

Therefore it was very exciting when it was announced some of the stars of the show would be coming to New Zealand and Australia for the first time for Twin Peaks: Conversation with the Stars. The panel discussion featured Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer), Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs), Kimmy Robertson (Lucy Moran), Michael Horse (Deputy Hawk), Al Strobel (Phillip Gerard) and executive producer Sabrina S. Sutherland.

Tonight Sally and I headed down to the Palais Theatre as the doors opened in order to catch the music of Twin Peaks being performed by Brisbane's Electric Moon while photos from the show were shown on a screen at the back of the stage. The cast then came out onto the stage to big cheers from the crowd before we were treated to David Lynch himself on the screen as he skyped into the event to answer questions posed by fans who bought VIP tickets. His answers to each question were short and cryptic, with interesting tidbits about letting things go into the air, and that he wants to take up sewing.

After saying goodbye to David the panel discussion began in full. It was hosted by Melbourne writer and Twin Peaks super fan Andy Hazel. He started back at the very beginning and asked everyone how they were originally cast in the show and what it was like to shoot the pilot episode. They then talked about what it was like for them during the first season as the show became super popular. I found it interesting that Dana thought it was the marketing of the show by ABC around "Who Killed Laura Palmer?" that drove that to be the main focus of the first season, because he felt it wasn't the key story line when they were shooting the show. Al spoke about the woods almost being like another main character in the show (despite the fact they shot most of the series on a sound stage in LA).

The panel spoke fondly about those cast members that have died over the years. Michael and Al talked about Jack Nance (Pete Martell and a longtime Lynch collaborator) and how they would go to him to interpret what the script meant when they didn't understand it. Sabrina also discussed Catherine Coulson (the Log Lady) and how they had to send up a film crew to her house to film her scenes for Twin Peaks: The Return because she was terminally ill with cancer (she ended up dying four days later).

Sabrina shared that on the original series she was responsible for numbering all the scripts for each actor so they could prevent any leaks. The cast members often didn't have a full picture of the storylines until they watched the show because they only knew what happened in their own scenes. It was lovely to hear the different stories from the cast, with Kimmy Robertson being particularly funny. You can tell they all have a great fondness for each other and felt honored to get to work with David Lynch on all the various incarnations of Twin Peaks.

When the panel discussion was finished we were treated to a half hour of short films by David Lynch. This one for David Lynch Signature Coffee featuring Barbie was my favorite:

The Bachelor S17 E5

Tonight a group of us from work went to see the La Mama Theatre production of The Bachelor S17 E5 at the Brunswick Mechanics Institute in support of one of our workmates who acted in the performance. The production used transcripts from the show to bring to life one of those special two night Bachelor events focused on Sean Lowe's season of The Bachelor in the US.

The casting was inspired as they had different age ranges, body types and genders representing the female contestants. The guy who played host Chris Harrison was fantastic, and like a typical Bachelor episode, this one had a one on one date, a group date, a two on one date, and a dramatic rose ceremony. The Bachelor gave off some creepy and predatory vibes as he made out with many of the cast, and there was all the backstabbing and drama you would expect from the contestants. The staging was well done, with my absolute favorite part being the departure from the two on one date of drag queen Precious Cargo in a brilliant lip sync performance of Lana Del Ray's "Young and Beautiful" inspired by Sasha Velour's Ru Paul's Drag Race season nine finale performance. It was an entertaining evening and a fun way to portray the madness of The Bachelor.

Expat Observations: Late Night Talk Shows

Late night talk shows are an institution in the United States. All the main networks have them, and there are even more on basic cable. These shows provide topical monologues at the start commenting on the day's news, comedy bits, interviews with tv and film stars or other people of note, and musical or stand-up comedy guests. They are an important part of the tv landscape and a way for acts to break out in popularity.

How many late night talk shows are there in Australia? ZERO. The closest I've seen in my time here has been Rove on Ten, and Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight on the ABC, but even those shows were on in prime time. If you did want to see a late night talk show on free to air tv your only option is to watch those imported from the States - The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Late Late Show with James Corden.

I have never understood why the format isn't on tv here as you think there would be at least one show. It's very unfortunate for Australian acts as they really have no where to go to promote their latest projects, tv shows, films or albums except for morning tv and news/entertainment shows like The Project (and that's if they can get on as those shows are more likely to have international guests who are in town). How can the next great Australian band or comedian be discovered in such a closed media environment? And how can Australia get nightly social commentary on things that are happening in the country without a late night host to hold those in power to account for their actions?

Party Tricks

We're entering the second week of the Victorian State Election campaign but the tv version portrayed in Party Tricks has just finished.  Victorian Premier Kate Ballard (Asher Keddie) is in her first election campaign as Premier and heading to certain victory when the Coalition announces a shock new candidate- former tv reporter and popular media personality David McLeod (Rodger Corser).  The six part series, produced by John Edwards and Imogen Banks, follows the ups and downs of the election campaign as the candidates try to keep one part of their shared history private- a secret affair from years ago.

Party Tricks was great fun to watch as they did a wonderful job of capturing the realities of politics in Victoria.  The campaign slogans, posters and ads were spot on.  The show even created campaign sites for Ballard and McLeod as well as social media accounts for the candidates that mirrored what was happening in the episodes and on the campaign trail each week.  The outcome of the election was close, but we'll just have to wait and see if fantasy mirrors reality at the end of the month.

Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

Today Lei, Uncle Tom, Aunt Dulce and I went to see a taping of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson at CBS Studios in Hollywood.  The last time I was here was when Craig Kilborn was the host of the Late Late Show.  Lei is a big fan of Craig Ferguson which is why she got us tickets. 

Although it is Tuesday they were taping Friday night's show.  Since the studio is so small they started by shooting the musical guest, county singer Justin Moore.  After rearranging the set they ran through the whole show from the start with various regular segments and an interview with actor James Woods.  The Woods interview went long so they had to bump the other scheduled guest, actress Kathryn Hahn, but they still taped her segment with us which will air next Tuesday night.  I don't watch Craig's show but he seems to play more to the cameras than the studio audience.  We were also encouraged by staff to laugh at everything, which I found a bit annoying as most other shows will play off of a joke succeeding or failing.  It was an interesting taping to attend though- certainly a bit different from the other late night shows I've seen.

Conan

Today Lei and I went to see a taping of Conan at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank. The last time I saw a Conan taping was in 1998 in New York when he was doing Late Night with Conan O'Brien.  We got their early to make sure we could get good seats in the studio audience.  I was wondering if they would have any Conan merchandise for sale and lucky for us a guy came and opened up a stand in the waiting area.  Lei and I picked up awesome blue t-shirts of an animated owl Conan in a tv shaped bird cage that are only available for sale to audience members.

As expected there was a lot of waiting around, standing in lines and walking as we went through the Warner Brothers lot to get to Stage 15. The Conan studio is decent sized and the set looks great in person.  We had seats a few rows up in the center with a good view of everything. During the audience warm up Lei pointed me out to the comedian as someone from out of town.  Thankfully he didn't seem to question my lack of an Aussie accent.

The guests for this evening's show were comedian and tv host Howie Mandel, boxer Floyd Mayweather, and musical guest Alexander Ebert (lead singer of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros).  We had some funny comedy bits including John Galliano's brother and his many hats, and a cow committing suicide by jumping from the studio rafters and hanging itself after listening to the Basic Cable Band.  Despite the cow incident the Basic Cable Band were awesome and it was a treat to get to hear them play full songs before the taping started and during the commercial breaks. Alexander's performance of "Truth" was amazing and had me wanting to check out his solo album. After the show finished taping we were asked to stick around for a special surprise and were treated to an additional interview with Ashton Kutcher, which will air as part of Thursday's show. It was a fun taping and Conan came up into the audience and sang to the crowd at the end.

Here is Alexander doing "Truth"

Australian TV Shows

There are quite a few good Australian tv shows that have aired this year, and the key player in their creation is Southern Star John Edwards Productions.  John Edwards has a fantastic track record from producing such award winning tv shows as The Secret Life of Us and Love My Way.  His latest crop are also quite good- usually hour long dramas with well written and interesting characters (and often with many of the same excellent actors involved).  If you can find these shows I strongly encourage you to check them out.  Below is a synopsis of what each one is about.

Tangle (Showcase)
Tangle is about two generations of two families — sometimes connecting, sometimes colliding, sometimes at cross-purposes — as they navigate their way around the maze of love, sex, money and politics.

Spirited (W)
A drama/comedy/romance starring Claudia Karvan as Suzy Darling, a dentist who has moved so single-mindedly through life that she has not stopped to smell the roses. When she walks away from what has become a loveless marriage and moves into an old apartment block, Suzy encounters the ghost of '80s rock star Henry Mallet. It is a blackly funny exploration of love, death and life.

Rush (Ten)
Rush is a contemporary action drama series set in a critical incident police unit; providing an insider's view of police under pressure. Our heroes are a mobile squad trained to be smarter, tactically superior and technologically advantaged.

Offspring (Ten)
Offspring is a contemporary drama series about Nina Proudman, a thirty-something obstetrician and her fabulously messy family. It is about the life forces that drive us all: love, sex, babies, food and music. Stylistically fresh and visually exciting, Offspring mixes conventional narrative drama with flashbacks, graphic animation and fantasy sequences.

Conan's Back!

I am so excited that Conan is finally back on the air in late night.  His show may have moved to basic cable on TBS, but I'm sure it will be just as funny as his stints on Late Night and The Tonight Show.  The only downside for me is that his show is airing on an HD channel in Australia, and I don't have HD.  Therefore, I am hoping that the majority of each episode will be uploaded onto the show's website so I can watch it.  I've been a fan since 1993- can't miss the show now!

Here's the cold opening from his first night:

Team Conan

Before I left the States last week news broke that NBC was going to shaft Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show by moving Jay Leno's failed 10:00 pm show to 11:35 pm after the Olympics and push The Tonight Show to start a half hour later at 12:05 am. I have been really angry that Conan is being treated this way and was glad to read Conan's statement today that he is not down with it either. Who knows what will happen now, but the ball is in NBC's court.

People of Earth:

In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over “The Tonight Show” in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004, I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.

But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my “Tonight Show” in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the “Tonight Show” to 12:05 to accommodate the “Jay Leno Show” at 11:35. For 60 years, the “Tonight Show” has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the “Tonight Show” into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The “Tonight Show” at 12:05 simply isn’t the “Tonight Show.” Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the “Late Night” show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard, and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of “The Tonight Show.” But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet, a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the “Tonight Show,” I believe nothing could matter more.

There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.

Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it’s always been that way.

Yours,
Conan

Foxtel iQ

This morning I got my new Foxtel iQ box installed. I had put off upgrading to iQ due to the cost, but Foxtel have recently come out with iQ value packs, and since it was only $5 more a month for the package of channels I currently have I decided to go for it. It's really great because now I can record up to two shows at the same time onto the hard drive, pause and replay live tv, have access to all the On Demand shows, and even program it to record from Foxtel's website. It's like a TiVo and cable box all rolled into one. For a tv addict like me this thing could be very dangerous, but I won't be missing any shows anymore.

Farewell ROVE

Last night Rove McManus announced that he was ending his talk show after 10 years on the air:


As you can see from the gasp in the audience, the announcement was a complete shock. This episode was supposed to be the final one for the year, not the last show ever. ROVE was the only equivalent to a late night talk show on tv here in Australia, and even then it only aired once a week. It launched many comedians' careers and was one of the few vehicles for bands to play live on network television. I really hope that someone comes up with another evening talk show because I have always found it to be a shame that there are no late night talk shows on here (especially when you consider how many are on the air in the States). I wish Rove all the best and look forward to seeing what his next project may be.

The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien

This week was the debut of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. It is nice to have Conan back on tv after his few months away. I am glad that so many of the Late Night staff have made the move to Los Angeles, and it's great to have Andy Richter back on the show. The new Tonight Show set is gorgeous with its Art Deco style and provides a nice connection to Late Night, which was shot in the beautiful Art Deco building that is 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City.

There was a lot of debate about how Conan might have to change the show for an 11:30 p.m. audience, but it feels like the same old Conan to me. There have been lots of remote pieces this week, as well as the return of a revamped "In the Year 3000", the string dance, and even an appearance by graphic designer Pierre Bernard. The new Max Weinberg and the Tonight Show Band have grown to 8 members with the inclusion of James Wormworth on percussion (The Worm used to fill in for Max when he was on tour with Bruce Springsteen) and they have kept the old Late Night theme with some minor tweaking. It may take them some time to settle in and work out how to incorporate Andy into the show more fully, but overall I think they've made the transition well and I'm happy to be able to watch Conan again five nights a week.

Farewell Late Night with Conan O'Brien

On Friday the sixteen glorious years of Late Night with Conan O'Brien came to an end. I remember watching the first episode of Late Night in September 1993 and seeing this unknown and nervous pale, red-headed Irish Catholic host who was taking over from David Letterman. Conan and sidekick Andy Richter had a very rough first year but the comedy was always brave, intelligent and inspired. They took chances and even though not everything hit the mark you had to admire their originality.

The last couple weeks have been filled with highlights from throughout the years. The final show included some great old clips (yay for the snippet of Ken Burns' Conan) and Andy stopped by one last time. Will Ferrell made an appearance as George W. Bush and The White Stripes played a lovely version of "We're Going To Be Friends." The show ended with Conan giving an emotional and heartfelt thanks to everyone who worked on the show, helped his career, and his friends, family and fans. He did good to hold it together for the most part.

Throughout the years my favorite bits on Late Night have always been the remote segments as it's where Conan really shines. One of my favorite remote pieces was the 1864 Old Time Baseball:


Conan was recently a guest on Inside the Actor's Studio and gave a very insightful and funny interview to James Lipton, who was a frequent visitor to Late Night over the past few years. You can watch it here. It will be interesting to see how Conan goes as host of The Tonight Show, but I have great faith that he will succeed at the 11:30 pm hour.

Conan Doesn't Need Writers

Conan O'Brien on TV Talk Machine

As a devoted viewer of Late Night with Conan O'Brien since its inception in 1993 (and yes, I still watch it here in Australia) I was excited but a bit bummed out when I heard that Conan was coming to San Francisco to do a week of shows at the Orpheum Theatre starting April 30th. I would have loved to attend one of the tapings, but that won't be happening. Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle has done a podcast with Conan discussing the upcoming shows, his take over of The Tonight Show in 2009, and other assorted topics, which you can listen to here. Most interesting factoid for me- Conan's sister lives in San Rafael!

BB7: All-Stars

It's summertime in the USA, so that means only one thing- Big Brother is back on the air! I'm so disappointed I am not there to watch it because this summer is all about the BB All-Stars. The public voted for 6 people from seasons 1 - 6 to go back in the house, with producers picking the remaining 8 people.

Even though I can't watch the show on tv here, I am following along on the internet. Having YouTube around this year has completely transformed the viewing of this show because so many people are throwing up bits from the live feeds. And thankfully for me, people are also putting the broadcast episodes up online because even though CBS has the episodes available for free on their website, I can't watch them because I'm outside the US.

Many of my favorites have made it back into the house, including Kaysar, Janelle, and evil Dr. Will. The game play is going to be so full-on this summer it will be interesting to see who makes it to the end. Allison has already be voted out of the house, and everyone seems to be gunning for the BB6 cast. Thankfully Kaysar won Head of Household this week, so at least they are all safe (for the moment).

I wish the Australian Big Brother was more like the US version- I find the game play and strategy so much more interesting to watch. Here they can't even discuss nominations and "playing the game" seems to be frowned upon in the house. The US version also seems to have a much more diverse group of people- differing ethnicities, ages, sexual orientations and religious backgrounds have been represented throughout the seasons. Diversity in casting makes a more watchable show. I wonder, considering all the controversy from this year, if the Australian producers will make some big changes for their next season. I sure hope they do.

Dinner and Big Brother

Ben is back in town for a few days doing rehearsals with Rogue Traders before they head off to the UK and US for some shows, so we decided to meet up for dinner. I walked down to his hotel after work and as I got there he was getting his room upgraded to one of the penthouse suite apartments. The place was huge- probably three times the size of my apartment. It was kind of funny. We decided to have dinner at il Solito Posto, an Italian restaurant in an alley off Collins Street. The food was delicious. I had linguine with calamari and napoli sauce, and Ben had spaghetti bolognese.

After eating we rushed back to the hotel to catch Big Brother. As many of you know, I find Big Brother to be very addictive, and the Australian edition has been no exception. The rules are a lot different to the US version, and it's on tv here every night so I don't have to spend as much time online reading about what's going on in the house. This past weekend has been a very controversial one as John and Ashley were kicked out of the house by Big Brother for sexual misconduct (and rightly so). It's been all over the news here and overseas, with calls from politicians to yank the show off the air. However, I think the real issues are more societal and symptomatic of the laddish culture that exists in Australia. Of course, the politicians are choosing to ignore the bigger picture.

What is amusing though is that Ben was actually in the Big Brother house when John and Ashley got kicked out because Rogue Traders played a mini-concert for the housemates on Saturday night. This was before the housemates knew that the boys had been removed and would not be returning. John and Ashley are supposed to appear with Gretel Killeen (BB host) later tonight, so we'll see how apologetic they are about what happened. I'm not getting my hopes up.

Meeting Up With People

It has been so great to catch up with people while I have been home. Today I had lunch with June at Comforts in San Anselmo. We took a walk around downtown after we finished eating. I got to see some photos in a shop window from New Year's when there was about 5 feet of water racing through the streets. It's amazing that most of the businesses are back open again after such damage.

Last night I went to the Glisson's house in San Rafael. Lucille cooked up a yummy dinner for us, and then we watched American Idol. I haven't seen any of this season, but it was the first show with the final 12 contestants on the big stage. Lynne already had nicknames for all of them, and we heaped abuse at the tv screen as they butchered the songs of Stevie Wonder. No one really stood out to me- definitely not a Constantine in the bunch this year. I have no idea who will win. My favorite Simon Cowell comment of the night was when he told Bucky to get rid of his "Jessica Simpson hair." I have to agree with Simon- the hair was distracting!

On Monday I got to visit Angie and baby Katie at the coffee shop. Katie has gotten so big- she's the tallest baby ever (9 months old and 30 inches long). It was nice to hang out with Angie for a couple hours and catch up. We are having a late lunch and doing a bit of shopping tomorrow while Katie is with her grandparents. Should be fun.

Oh, and I have to wish my dad a very Happy Birthday today! I'm so glad I am home to celebrate it.

Culture Vulture

Tonight I headed down to the ABC tv studios in Elsternwick to watch the taping of this week's episode of Vulture. I met up with Will, his mother and sister, as well as Helen's parents. The topics this week were the convict miniseries "Mary Bryant," the Australian architect awards, "raunch culture," and the death of copyright. The panel had good discussions on all the topics, and even though it was a bit more academic this week it was still interesting.

After the taping, Helen, Will, and I met up with host Richard Fidler, and audience warm-up comedian Justin Kennedy at Grossi Florentino on Bourke Street. We had a delicious dinner, a couple bottles of Shiraz, and entertaining conversation. It was a good night.

Happy Halloween to all my US friends. I can't say that I really missed dealing with 20 hyper second graders loaded up with energy and sugar this year. I hope the Wilson School Harvest Festival was a success and that you made lots of money for your classrooms.

Whatup Kaysar?

Big Brother is my summer tv crack. Every year I get sucked into the show. I try to convince myself that I won't, but after a few weeks I am glued to my computer reading the live feed updates to see what is going on in the house. Big Brother is shown all over the world, but what sets the US version apart is the fact that house guests vote people out- not the public. This leads to lots of strategy, backstabbing, and alliances. In other words, drama and great tv!

This season the house has been deeply divided between two groups: the evil "Friendship" cult and the Sovereign 6, who were led by my favorite player, Kaysar. Kaysar turned the house upside down in Week 3, but unfortunately got voted out in Week 4. However, it is the "Summer of Secrets" on Big Brother, and America was allowed to vote back in an evicted house guest. Kaysar was saved with 82% of the vote and triumphantly reentered the house. After 14 hours of holding down a button in the Head of Household competition, and promises that he would be safe, Kaysar let go and allowed Jennifer to become HOH. This turned out to be his undoing, as Jennifer is in the "Friendship" cult, and she lied and went back on every promise she made to Kaysar. As a result, Kaysar got voted out again this past Thursday. I was not a happy camper.

Revenge is sweet though. Janelle won HOH and since it was a double eviction week, Jennifer was voted out of the house less than 48 hours later. While she thinks America loves her, she will be very suprised to see that her famewhore dreams have been shattered due to her unethical game play. The power keeps shifting back and forth between the two groups, and who knows who will end up the winner of Big Brother 6? As long as it isn't one of the cult, I will be satisfied. Check out all the action on CBS.com.