October 10, 2007
Back to You star Kelsey Grammer is selling his 7,500-square foot Bridgehampton residence. The traditional-style structure is now on the market for $16.1 million, just under two times what the multi-Emmy Award-winning actor and his wife paid for when they acquired it two years ago.
This is the latest in a string of Grammer's habitual buying and selling forays in real estate.
October 3, 2007
Fred Willard is a comedy legend at this point. His work in Christopher Guest films alone is enough to warrant that distinction, and in particular, his role as the bumbling dog show announcer in Best in Show is, for my money, one of the single funniest performances in recent cinematic history. He plays a similar role on the new FOX sitcom Back to You, as local sports anchor Marsh McGinley.
BuddyTV got the chance to sit face-to-face with Fred Willard and discuss his role on Back to You, his affinity for baseball, his views on what makes something funny, and the joys of working with Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton. Below you will find the transcript as well as the mp3 audio file of the interview.
October 2, 2007
As part of FOX's Fall TV press junket in Los Angeles last week, we were lucky enough to receive an invite to the FOX Fall Eco-Casino party at trendy nightclub Area in West Hollywood. Being a lowly internet writer, this was my first experience at a big-time Hollywood event. They even had a red carpet (which I did not walk down; bloggers use the back entrance, out of sight from the real press), which was all flash bulbs and TV cameras. Exciting stuff. We were driven from our hotel to the club, dropped off at the press table, picked up our credentials and walked straight in. It was sweet.
September 26, 2007
FOX is bringing in new technology for one of its freshest series, Back to You. The network has just acquired a live production system to help re-create the news show setting required for certain segments of the program.
In Back to You, former Frasier star, Kelsey Grammer and Everybody Loves Raymond's Patricia Heaton are television news anchors for a Pittsburgh station. The recently purchased new live production system will provide the various elements needed for their news program sequences.
September 19, 2007
Fans will finally witness the highly-anticipated union of two Emmy Award-winning actors, Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, when Back to You premieres tonight at 8/7c on FOX. Much hype has been generated with the comedians' return on television ever since they became household names in their respective long-running sitcoms. Grammer, who played psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on Frasier, and Heaton, who portrayed Debra Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond, will now be a regular Wednesday night item as part of a 13-episode commitment by 20th Century Fox Television, which serves as a lead out to ‘Til Death, a sitcom that stars Heaton's former costar, Brad Garrett.
Created and executive-produced by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan, Back to You centers on a pair of star news anchors with on-air chemistry and off-air conflict who find themselves working together again after 10 years apart.
September 12, 2007
Frasier star Kelsey Grammer and Everybody Loves Raymond’s Patricia Heaton are back at what they do best – entertaining viewers on weekly comedy television. The two sitcom heavyweights with seven Emmy awards between them star as former co-anchors who must once again share the spotlight at a Pittsburgh news desk.
Grammer, who earned a pair of Golden Globes and five Emmy awards for his portrayal of the snobbishly intelligent Dr. Frasier Crane on Frasier, now essays the role of the less than stellar yet egotistical Chuck Darling on Back to You. The upcoming FOX series marks a reunion of sorts for Grammer and fellow Frasier alums, Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd. Lloyd and Levitan both served as writers and executive producers on Frasier and are now co-creators of Back to You. The three Frasier stalwarts recently spoke about making the transition from their old series to their new one.
September 10, 2007
In BuddyTV's 2007 Fall TV Guide, we analyzed which great stars are working on shows that aren't worthy of their skill levels. The three to earn that distinction in 2007 are Fred Willard in Back to You, Jerry O'Connell in Carpoolers, and Joshua Malina in Big Shots.
Fred Willard is a comedic semi-genius. Ten, 20 years ago I might have given him full-fledged genius, but the man is 67-years-old (though he doesn't look it) and slowing down just a tad. In recent years, Willard has given scene-stealing performances in the Christopher Guest films Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind, and more mainstream fare like Anchorman. Ironically, he'll be gracing the small screen this Fall in a sitcom likely inspired by Anchorman's success in the new FOX sitcom Back to You. Back to You stars sitcom legends Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton as adversarial anchor-people. Back to You has yet to be made available to anyone (bad sign) and the promos have been, for lack of a better word, cringe-worthy. Despite the star power involved, Back to You looks like your typical unfunny sitcom, which leads me to this question: Why, Fred Willard? Why?
September 10, 2007
In BuddyTV’s 2007 Fall TV Guide, we stared at countless photographs of the new show casts to determine which were most pleasing to the eye (the “Beauties”) and which weren’t so pleasant (the “Beasts”). In the end, we settle on Private Practice, Cane and Gossip Girl as having the hottest casts, while Cavemen, Dirty Sexy Money and Back to You all came up short in the looks department.
I always thought people on the local news were supposed to be chosen based on looks. FOX's failed reality series Anchorwoman tried to throw a model and WWE Diva into the role, and perhaps it's failure proved my hypothesis wrong. Also proving my hypothesis wrong: the new sitcom Back to You.