"Damages!" "The Shield!" "Rescue Me!" FX Reveals Hot Details about New and Returning Series at TCA - Ed Martin Live at TCA

FX yesterday was surely the envy of every basic cable network when it commandeered an entire morning at the Summer 2008 Television Critics Association tour as in breakfast at 8 am and press conferences from 9 am until noonActually Hallmark Channel held court with the critics for almost as long a stretch 3 amp188 hours including a lunch on Day One of the tour but it did so by bringing out 24 beloved television stars of yesteryear to promote 10 movies FX on the other hand got to devote all of is time to three shows plus a QampampA with FX Networks President and General Manager John Landgraf who currently oversees five hourlong drama series six if he decides to renew The Riches which is on the fence Landgraf is also responsible for two comedy series and one documentary series 30 Days one of television39s bestFX got this extra TCA real estate because the broadcast networks have changed their game at this tour Traditionally each of the Big Four broadcasters has two days in which to present its upcoming product while The CW has one But this year the broadcasters have mashed their cable cousins into their TCA days in part because the threat of a strike by members of SAG compromised their tour plans but also because they claim not to be able to afford their usual TCA extravaganzas or so I am told Apparently newspapers aren39t the only media entities that are suddenly strapped for cashHence Fox ceded what would normally have been its second day of press conferences to a very well attended morning presentation by FX followed by a luncheon sponsored by Warner Bros Domestic Television Distribution and Telepictures on behalf of the upcoming syndicated talk show The Bonnie Hunt Show and an afternoon visit to the Los Angeles Center Studios where Mad Men is filmed Tellingly most of the critics who visited the Mad Men set wanted to live in the offices of the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency and many of the women in the group wanted unlimited access to the wardrobe department The Summer 2008 TCA tour will forever be remembered as the official Mad Men Tour The day ended with a cocktail party in the penthouse of the Beverly Hilton thrown by Fancastcom featuring celebrity guest Justin GuariniGetting back to FX Landgraf started the morning with tantalizing announcements about several returning series Michael J Fox will be seen next season on Rescue Me in a fourepisode arc as Tommy39s exwife39s boyfriend who happens to be confined to a wheelchair Rescue Me will return next spring with a run of 22 original episodes Ted Danson will continue his critically acclaimed portrayal of evil businessman Arthur Frobisher on the second season of Damages despite the fact that Frobisher was gunned down in cold blood in the Season 1 finale and Marcia Gay Harden will join the cast along with William Hurt and Timothy Olyphant both previously announced Season 2 will premiere in January 2009 Also in January Season 5 of NipTuck will resume with its remaining eight episodes and there will be 19 additional episodes after that NipTuck will end its run in 2011 It39s Always Sunny in Philadelphia will begin its fourth season on September 18 It will be paired as of October 9 with the new comedy Testees a title Landgraf could not speak without making the critics laugh One critic actually asked him to spell it Testees is about two friends in their early 30s who make their living as medical guinea pigsMeanwhile The Shield will begin its seventh and final season on September 2 and FX39s newest gritty drama series Sons of Anarchy described by Landgraf as a quotgenerational family drama and a crime drama set in the world of motorcycle clubs will debut September 3 And the fate of The Riches remains undecidedLandgraf noted that FX faces a unique challenge because it has so many successful shows All networks should have this problem right Such successes quotconsume a lot of marketingquot he said They also quotconsume a lot of money because they get more and more expensive to produce as they go on and onquot Serialized dramas he added quottend to get lower and lower ratingsquot A serialized drama will quottend to peak in ratings in its third season and then it will go downquot even as costs go upIt39s a tremendous challengequot he continued quotBut one of the reasons you see us announcing the end of The Shield well in advance of The Shield39s end and announcing now that NipTuck is going to end in three years is we39re publicly challenging ourselves and saying we39re not going to wait until the light is blinking red We39re going to plan for the orderly and dignified ending of great shows and we39re going to launch great new shows at the same time and we39re going to get the new shows on the air before the shows that have been the great shows as part of our brand are overquot

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"Damages!" "The Shield!" "Rescue Me!" FX Reveals Hot Details about New and Returning Series at TCA - Ed Martin Live at TCA

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