Word: zucker
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...comfortable with. In June, Disney continued what's shaping up to be a less-than-stellar year by settling a lawsuit brought by Deborah Bynum, who claims she had a brain hemorrhage after a 1998 spin on the "Indiana Jones Adventure" ride at Disneyland. Last September, Brandon Zucker, now 5, suffered severe brain damage when he fell out of the Anaheim park's Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin...
...demographic. But it's also under siege on various fronts, not least CBS's attack on its Must-See Thursday empire, which but for the grace of the colossal bomb "Big Apple" it would have lost altogether. And there was that little matter of the XFL. What's more, Zucker and other NBC execs have long acknowledged the network needs to build successful new comedies. So why was it launching the season with a paltry eight on the schedule (canceling "DAG," "The Fighting Fitzgeralds" and "The Weber Show"), launching only enough new ones to replace the ones it axed? Maybe...
...risible thing is, NBC seems to want to see "Emeril" as an example of the new regime's thinking outside the box. "We're going to bring shows into prime time that are not normally there," Zucker said. "We're going to bring people that are not normally there." In other words, "Emeril" is the big-league network staying fresh by borrowing something hip from cable. No. "Emeril" is the network borrowing something it thinks is hip from cable; in the real world, Lagasse's moment of edgy cult stardom peaked several years ago, around the time...
...thing is, NBC even seems to know the show is trouble. Word has already leaked that it will be "retooled" over the summer. At one point in his remarks, Zucker even promised advertisers that NBC's other two new sitcoms were "the real deal," pointedly leaving out only "Emeril." So why was it on the schedule at all? Search me, but Zucker reminded advertisers that Lagasse is "one of the most popular personalities from everyday life" and noted that the show tested extremely well among focus groups - the NBC press release actually said Lagasse's appeal is "proven by research...
...Undercover." This fast-paced-looking crime drama focuses on an "elite" crime-fighting unit in LA. The show, said Zucker, promises "an exciting, diverse team in front of the camera and behind it." Which means a white character, a black character, a Hispanic actor (Jon Seda) playing a guy named "Jake Shaw" and a nerdy crypto-Jewish computer geek (Jarrad Paul, who was outstanding as the screenwriter in Fox's short-lived "Action"). Most important, this looks possibly to be NBC's bid at creating its own "CSI." Hey, the initials won't hurt...