No, that's not Jim Rockford. Keep reading for that news.
What the heck's a Grey's Anatomy spoiler doing at the top of this list? Well, it's also a spoiler for Shonda Rhimes' new, tropical-island medical drama Off the Map and if it's set on a tropical island, I'll cover it. At least until I discover whether or not it sucks.
At any rate, the romance between Ben the anesthesiologist (played by the awesome Jason George above) and the even awesomer Bailey will be short-lived. George is moving to Off the Map to play a different character. The odds of Off the Map's sucking just got a lot longer. [The Ausiello Files]
A dinosaur pilot, your new Nikita and Rockford, and the best way ever to get detention after the break.
If you're further behind on TV-watching than I am then a) God bless you, and b) SPOILER WARNINGS House – “5 to 9”
I never doubted for a second that Cuddy would pull that off, but otherwise, a fun episode. I liked the one that focused on Wilson too, so this was a great follow-up to that.
Chuck – “Chuck vs. the Mask”
Now that I’ve seen the episode, it makes this whole brouhaha look even more ridiculous. Forgetting the fan-entitlement angle, it’s just stupid TV-watching. Do these people really think that Chuck and Sarah aren’t eventually going to end up together? That’s not the only part of the show, but it is a big part. I’m as impatient as the next person to see it happen, but geez… let the people tell their story.
And if we’ve got to see Chuck and Sarah with other people for a while, they could be with much more annoying choices than Brandon Routh and Kristen Kreuk. I’ve always been fond of Kreuk and it’s great to finally watch her without the obnoxious plot-lines Smallville kept giving her.
Grey's Anatomy – “State of Love and Trust”
I try not to talk about Grey’s Anatomy here, but I just can’t help it sometimes. When it’s doing its thing, there’s nothing better on television.
So, at the risk of sounding like a ‘shipper, I need to talk about Lexie and Sloan for a minute. I wasn’t that invested in them, but I did like them together and it’s annoying that they’ve broken up. Especially since Sloan’s daughter shows up just long enough to drive a wedge between him and Lexie, spark a Private Practice crossover, and then disappear. In the meanwhile, Lexie and Sloan both make mistakes so that even when the daughter leaves they still can’t get back together. I don’t know where it’s headed and I tend to trust the Grey’s writers, but it’s frustrating.
I do like the hint though that Sloan’s loneliness is going to affect Callie and Arizona. First of all, that makes total sense, but more than that, I love those two – especially Arizona – so I’m all for spending more time on them.
Nice moments in this episode with Christina; especially the debrief on her relationship with Burke and how that’s affecting her current relationship with Hunt. That’s what I mean about trusting these writers. The characters may not talk about Burke much, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t make an impact on their lives or that they’re not thinking about him. He mattered. Still matters. And that’s very cool.
But the coolest thing in this episode was Jason Winston George’s showing up as an anesthesiologist. I love that dude. He was one of the best parts of both Eli Stone and Eastwick, so it’s about time he got some time on a show that’s going to be around for a while. I’m hoping they let him stay and become a possible love interest for Bailey. Not that Bailey needs a love interest, but if she’s going to get one – and if it can’t be Taye Diggs – it might as well be Jason Winston George.
Burn Notice – “Noble Causes”
I actually wasn’t looking forward to this one because the client was that annoying drug dealer from the pilot. But damn if it didn’t turn out to be really touching.
If you've been reading this blog for a long time, you may remember that back in the day I used to occasionally squeeze Grey's Anatomy news in under the subject: Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me. I'm still a big fan of the show, I've just managed to control the urge to talk about it here.
But because I'm sure it's a top priority for her, Grey's creator Shonda Rhimes has figured out how to get more Adventureblog attention for one of her medical dramas: set it on a tropical island.
If you're not caught up on your TV: There will be SPOILERS.
Modern Family
First episode was hilarious even though I’d already seen a lot of it in one of those specials they run before the trailers at the movie theater. “She’s got the creampuffs” still makes me giggle.
Grey's Anatomy
I think this would have been much more powerful had I not read the spoilers on what was going to happen and all the behind-the-scenes stuff about why it had to. That was my own fault, but it is what it is. I had a hard time grieving over George when I understood the frustration that led the actor playing him to want to leave the show.
Still, grief in all its varieties was brilliantly written and acted by everyone. I may not feel a personal loss, but I can certainly empathize with characters like Bailey, Izzie, Lexie, Meredith, Callie, and even the girl George saved as they’re struggling to cope. Powerful stuff, which is why I watch the show.
The merging hospital storyline feels forced, but I’ll reserve judgment for now. I’m concerned that some of my favorite characters are going to get even less screen time this season than usual as the show tries to figure out how to ensure that no character or actor is indispensable.
The Mentalist
Not 100% sure about the new character, but I think I’m going to like Jane’s having someone around that he can aggressively antagonize.
Cho continues to grow into one of my favorite characters. To think that I sort of hated him when the show first started.
House
So far, so good. I’m really nervous about this show because I like who House has become: still troubled, but coping and learning to make connections with people. It’s once again one of my favorite shows because we’re actually seeing some character growth in House. I’d pretty much written that off as impossible and my interest in the show was falling. What I’m afraid of is his regressing to the cranky drug-abuser he was before, but deep down I believe that the show-runners are way smart and won’t settle for the safe, easy, less fascinating choices.
Glee
Weird. I haven’t actually liked Rachel before now, even though she’s a major character and I feel like I’m supposed to. After last week’s episode though, I’m actively disliking her. Strange choice the writers are making there.
On the other hand, Quinn has been a villain up to this point and now we’re being given reasons to like her. I don’t really know what the show’s up to and I like that.
I also like that Kurt’s getting even more screen time, because he’s awesome. And how much did you want to hug his dad for turning out to be a good dad? "He's so little" nearly broke my heart.
Glad to see more focus on Tina too. I was starting to think that she was going to be a glorified extra; padding to fill out the club while only two or three members got all the storylines. Apparently that’s not going to be the case and it gives me hope that Artie will eventually become more than the Kid in the Wheelchair.
Oh, and Kristin Chenoweth’s episode is this week. Hoping that turns into more.
I'm on the fence about this show. It has it's funny moments, but I'm not feeling most of the characters. Two episodes in and the kids in the Glee Club all still feel like stereotypes and clichés. The main character Will is supposed to be this nice guy, but he's creepily flirting with another teacher who's desperately in love with him even though he's married and - as far as he knows - has a baby on the way.
I've got three reasons for sticking with it for a while though. Jane Lynch is as hilarious as she always is, Victor Garber plays Will's dad, and Kristin Chenoweth is supposed to be in an upcoming episode or two. I'll watch Victor Garber in anything and I'm still not over my crush on Kristin Chenoweth from Pushing Daisies. And it's not like it's an awful show or anything. I'm just not sure I'd stick with it if not for those three actors.
The Office
Bullet proof. Things are changing around Dunder Mifflin, but as long as I keep laughing like I have been, I'm not worried.
Community
I laughed once during the pilot episode, but that was because someone was quoting The Breakfast Club. I'll always laugh at Breakfast Club references, if only out of fondness. And there's a certain Breakfast Clubness to the concept too: a diverse group of students getting together to study and survive their community college experience. That could be interesting, right? I thought I should give it a second week to see if it got funnier.
Didn't make it through ten minutes of the second episode. So not funny it hurt me.
House
Oh wow, did I love the season premiere. I only have one concern, but it's a big one. I'm not sure how they can top it. It was so beautiful and perfect that it felt like a series finale, not a season opener. Honestly, that's how I imagined the show should end and I'm seriously afraid to keep watching for fear of ruining the feeling I have about it right now.
On the other hand, I have a lot of faith in the people running the show and I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes. I'm just looking forward with a great deal of fear and trembling.
Big Bang Theory
Also bullet proof. Just keep Sheldon the same and you can screw around with Leonard and Penny's relationship all you want.
Castle
It's come to my attention that some people don't like this show. Those people are crazy. This is Nathan Fillion playing exactly the kind of character he was born to play, Stana Katic is a fantastic actress and - oh by the way - inconceivably beautiful, and the two are very funny together and have a ton of chemistry. The mysteries are also fun and interesting. It ain't CSI, but that's such a good thing.
My only gripe is that Susan Sullivan and Molly Quinn don't get enough to do as Castle's mom and daughter. They're around mostly to ground him and accidentally offer just the right piece of advice to help him crack the case and/or fix whatever's wrong with his relationship with Detective Beckett this week. But I like the two actresses enough that I'll happily take whatever I can get from them.
NCIS: Los Angeles
I've never watched an episode of NCIS, so I don't know what the rest of the world loves about that show. I caught the last half of the pilot for NCIS: LA though and I liked Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J enough in it that I'll be back for more. I really don't think I need another mystery show, but we'll see.
The Forgotten
TiVo insists on spelling it the forgotten like the show's logo does, but I can't make myself do that. The show's pretentious enough as it is.
When I was looking for promos to embed in my Fall TV Premieres post I found an old promo of The Forgotten that had another actor in what's now Christian Slater's role. I can only imagine that ABC saw how ridiculous the show was and thought, "Well... maybe if we put a movie star in it, no one will notice." It's a shame too, because I like Christian Slater and I think he should get a good series. I want to watch him in one.
But the pilot for The Forgotten had a crappy mystery solved because of wild logic jumps and sheer coincidences by people speaking cheesy dialogue in order to deliver a sermon that absolutely no one needs to hear. Is anyone really enlightened by the message that unidentified corpses have loved ones somewhere who are worried about them? Did we not know that? Does anyone benefit by being pounded over the head with it for an hour?
Eastwick
It's been a while since I've been able to get into a really good chick show. I think this is going to be one. The plot's intriguing, but what I really love is the cast. This looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.
FlashForward
I was very prepared not to like this. The next Lost you say, Ms. Network Marketing Person? I'll be the judge of that.
Well, I don't know if it's the next Lost (or if it even wants to be), but it is really freaking good. The first episode was thrilling, suspenseful, creepy, funny, touching, and I liked all the characters. Easily my favorite new show so far.
Modern Family Grey's Anatomy The Mentalist
Haven't watched these yet. Got 'em TiVoed though, so I'll let you know.
As before, Siskoid gets the credit for this. I sort of don't want this meme to end, so if he's up for other Favorite Character lists, I sure am too. It sounds like he might be moving on though (Create Your Own Black Ops Team? Do it, Siskoid! Do it!).
I tried making my own rules for this list too, but I kept breaking them. I wanted to include mainly characters whose series have ended so that I can say with certainty that I liked the character from beginning to end. But that would've left out some of my very favorites and I dumped the rule.
I also wanted to choose only characters from shows that I stuck with to the very end. My rationale is that if I loved the character so much, that ought to be enough to keep me interested in the show. But though I have stuck with shows much longer than I should have for love of a single character, there have also been times that the series' overall plot got the better of me and I couldn't take it anymore.
That's enough preamble. I've got more to say about characters and the effect they have on my enjoyment of shows, but I'll save that for below. I will note though that this time I've actually listed these in order of my favorites, from least to most.
10. Jamie Sommers (The Bionic Woman, 1976)
She's bottom of the list because it's been thirty-plus years since I've seen the show and I have no idea if I'd still like her as much. But she makes the list for being the first TV character that I actually cared deeply about. Not just because of a childhood crush - which I did have - but because she was such a tragic character.
If you don't know the original Bionic Woman, she started off as the girlfriend of Steve "the Six Million Dollar Man" Austin, but was injured in an accident that not only necessitated her bionic implants, but also took her memories, including her knowledge of her relationship with Steve. Her memory loss was harder on him than it was on her, but Lyndsay Wagner played Jamie Sommers with such sadness that I always got the sense she knew she was missing something. If only she could remember Steve, she could be happy again. My ten-year-old heart broke for her.
9. Jayne Cobb (Firefly)
You have to love the simplicity of a guy like Jayne who's so damn honest about his motivations. Plus, he named his gun Vera. Plus, there's that song...
8. Jack Bristow (Alias)
Another character with clear motivations. Jack Bristow will do anything to protect his daughter. Anything. It's the same single-minded determination I love about Jack Bauer from 24, only Bristow's daughter is infinitely smarter than Bauer's. His show was a lot better written too.
Anyway, there's just something awesome about a man who will stop at absolutely nothing to achieve his goal when his goal is admirable. And I don't know much that's more admirable than continuing to protect a daughter who more or less hates your guts for it.
7. The Doctor (Doctor Who)
I think I might be cheating a bit by listing all the Doctor's generations in a single entry. After all, I like some of them better than others, and some of them I've never even seen. But I really don't want to have to pick between Four and Ten, nor do I want to eat up two entries listing them separately. Nor do I want to leave out Three, Five, and Nine, whom I also like a lot.
Besides, one of the things I really love about the Doctor is the versatility of the character. It's amazing that so many different actors can interpret the same character so many different ways while still being so convincing that this is in fact the same guy. There's no one else like him in any media.
And I promise I hadn't looked at Siskoid's list before deciding to include all ten (or that specific collage) in mine.
6. Sherry Palmer (24)
Bar none, the greatest villain in the history of television. I spent the first half of 24's first season thinking that I loathed the selfish, manipulative Sherry Palmer until I realized how much I absolutely reveled inhating her. Arvin Sloane from Alias comes a close second in being this despicable, but he has a couple of redeeming qualities that Sherry didn't. I miss you, Sherry!
5. Dr. Charlotte King (Private Practice)
This year's season finale of Private Practice seemed like it was doing it's best to make me stop caring about the show. Addison Montgomery's flirtation with adultery is killing my interest in her. Dell's storyline this season came out of nowhere and is pretty unconvincing. The cliffhanger left one of the other characters not just in mortal danger, but threatened with the most emotionally excruciating death I can imagine. That she's also a character I don't like leaves me feeling conflicted and icky. Do I care that she could die this way? Not really. But boy do I ever feel like I should care, and I sort of hate myself for not.
What does any of this have to do with Charlotte King? She's the reason I'll be back next season.
I do this a lot. Faced with a show that I used to enjoy, but aren't anymore, I'll latch on to one or two characters I love and make them the focus of the series in my head. And I'm a total sucker for unlikable characters who are revealed to have hidden depths of redeeming qualities. Sawyer from Lost, Alex Karev from Grey's Anatomy, maybe House one day if he ever gets his act together. I love shows that are successful in making you hate someone and then even more successful in turning that hate to love.
Charlotte King tries so hard to be a hard-nosed, emotionless robot. It's what she thinks she needs to be to do her job. For all I know, it is what she needs to be to do her job. But the very fact that she's trying so hard at it reveals that she actually cares. I'm loving watching those walls she's built around her come down. As long as that development continues for her on the show, I'll keep watching it regardless of what nonsense everyone else is going through.
4. Patrick Jane (The Mentalist)
I'm not sure I should include a character on this list whose show is only one season long so far, but I can't help it. I thought that this show was going to be a Psych rip-off and it's so not. I love every character on it, but especially the infuriatingly smirky, know-it-all and above-it-all (yet deeply wounded) Patrick Jane. Give this show a few more seasons like the one it just had and he'll be the top entry on this list.
3. Worf (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Do you want to know how much I like Worf? I went to a Star Trek convention to meet Michael Dorn, the actor who plays him. That's crazy.
But Worf's story arc on Next Generation and then Deep Space Nine was intensely appealing to me. He's the outsider who manages to fit in without sacrificing who he is to do it. And he kicks booty. And he gets all the best lines ("Captain, I protest! I am not a merry man!"). And he ends up with the hottest women on whatever show he's on. Just saying.
2. Dr. Miranda Bailey (Grey's Anatomy)
Oh, how I love Miranda Bailey. On a show full of drama kings and queens, she manages to stay above it all. Most of the time. Occasionally though, something will get to her and she'll lose it and cry. That's when I always have to grunt and pretend there's something in my eye.
1. Noel Crane (Felicity)
Noel Crane (or "Dreamy Noel" as we call him around Casa del May) was me during college. Oh sure, he's not as good-looking as I am, but I so relate to his luck with dating. It's not that Noel can't get dates, but just that they're rarely with the girl he wants to be on them with.
College was a great time for me and Felicity helped me relive it shortly after I was out, just when I was missing it most. I accessed the show through Noel, so that makes him an important character in my life. I miss that show like crazy.
Not surprisingly, Noel made me a huge Scott Foley fan. I think my wife's a bit jealous of him. "You'll follow that man anywhere," she says, and she's right. I even watched every single episode of AUSA. That's devotion, baby.
Did my heart good to see him on Siskoid's list as Bob from The Unit.
Warner Brothers is releasing a DVD cartoon on July 8 that bridges the gap between Batman Begins and Batman: Dark Knight, which comes out in theaters ten days later.
Turok review
If you're curious about the Indians vs. Dinosaurs cartoon I mentioned earlier, Mike Sterling can tell you all about it.
Shannara graphic novel
Publishers Weekly has an interview with Terry Brooks about the comicbookization of his fantasy series. He talks about a lot of stuff including why he decided to come back to the character of Jair Ohmsford from Wishsong:
"I’d done a short story called 'Indomitable' a few years back for a Legends collection, and it was an attempt to pick up on what happened with Jair Ohmsford, who was one of the two main characters in Wishsong of Shannara. He was just a boy in there, and I thought I’d grow him up a bit. After I finished it, it just seemed like there was more to do with Jair if I chose to do it. At that time, though, I was moving ahead with the stories and didn’t really want to spend any more time on that generation.... But when it came time to do the graphic novel, I thought, this really is a good place to pursue it."
The graphic novel Dark Wraith of Shannara comes out March 25.
Burn Notice Season One DVD
Looks like Burn Notice, the best new show last year, is coming to DVD. It's only a rumor for now, but c'mon. Of course it is. And shortly before Season Two begins this summer, no doubt.
I haven't said much about the Justice League movie during the writers strike because it all seemed like non-news. Of course the strike put the movie on hold; of course the movie's back on now that the writers are working again. Not exactly a scoop.
IndianaJones.com has a new featurette about Indy's iconic look and trying to recreate it for the new movie.
Indy's trailer
Apparently, the teaser trailer for Indy and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will be attached to The Spiderwick Chronicles when it hits theaters on Thursday. I also saw something on IndianaJones.com earlier today about the trailer's TV and 'net debuts, but I can't find it now. Either I've gone stupid (entirely possible) or the info was released prematurely or is being changed. I'll let you know which once I know.
Three Days to Never According to Bookgasm, Tim Powers' Three Days to Never contains all of my favorite things: "hidden histories ... spirits, spies, talking disembodied heads, dybbuks, time travel, Charlie Chaplin’s quest for magical power, Albert Einstein’s secret doomsday device, and about a million other awesome things." So totally sold.
Welcome back, TV.
With the WGA strike all but officially over, TV Guide has a new strike chart up predicting when we'll start seeing new episodes of our favorite shows. Here are the ones that interest me:
Battlestar Galactica: Returns April 4 with first half of 20-episode final season. Production on second half could start as early as March. Airdate for those TBD.
The Big Bang Theory: Expected to shoot 5 to 7 new episodes to air in April/May.
Burn Notice: Production on Season 2 expected to get underway in late April. New episodes could start airing as early as July.
Chuck: No new episodes until fall.
Grey's Anatomy: Expected to shoot 4 to 7 new episodes to air in April/May
House: Expected to shoot 4 to 6 new episodes to air in April/May.
Jericho: Seven episodes remain. No additional episodes expected for this season.
Lost: Six pre-strike episodes remain. Six additional episodes could air this season.
Men in Trees: Eleven pre-strike episodes remain. No additional episodes expected this season.
The Office: Expected to shoot 5 to 10 new episodes to air in April/May.
Private Practice: Slim chance it could return with 4 or 5 new episodes this season. Either way, it'll be back in the fall.
Pushing Daisies: No new episodes until fall.
Scrubs: Four pre-strike episodes remain. Four additional episodes will likely be shot; unclear whether they'll air on NBC or go straight to DVD.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Five pre-strike episodes remain. Future beyond that TBD.
10. Atomic Robo (Red 5 Comics). He's a brand new character and I'm just getting to know him, but he was built by Tesla and he fights giant ants, so I think we're gonna get along just fine.
9. Thirteen (House). I love that she's mysterious and that House doesn't quite know what to make of her. Hope she sticks around.
8. Black Canary (DC Comics). She's come a long way from just being Green Arrow's girlfriend. They got it backwards when they called her new book Green Arrow and Black Canary.
7. Wonder Woman (DC Comics). The perfect woman.
6. Ben Wade (3:10 to Yuma). If you haven't seen the movie yet, I don't want to spoil it by going into too much detail about why he's a great character. I love though that he's a villain who sketches. Too many bad guys express their creativity through music; usually the violin or pipe organ. Having Ben use pencil and paper was a genius touch.
5. Remy (Ratatouille). He reminded me what it means to be a true individual.
4. Sarah Walker (Chuck). You can keep The Bionic Woman. Hell, you can have Starbuck too for all I care. Sarah's the best butt-kicking woman on TV.
3. Mark Sloan (Grey's Anatomy). I couldn't care less about him when he first showed up on the show, but with Addison gone to her own show, I love how lonely and not-so-cocky McSteamy suddenly seemed. I've loved watching him try to find his place this season.
2. Miranda Bailey (Grey's Anatomy). Okay, forget what I said about Wonder Woman. Bailey's the real deal. Her struggle to balance career and family is remarkable because it's so honestly and realistically portrayed. I seriously almost lost it when she broke down and sobbed after finally being rewarded with the Chief Resident position.
1. Elizabeth Swan (Pirates of the Caribbean). As far as I'm concerned, the Pirates movies are all about her. She's a pirate, a butt-kicker, and Keira Knightley. Lucky, lucky Will.
Happy Thanksgiving! Which characters are you thankful for?
At first I was surprised to learn that Fahrenheit 451 isn't really about censorship, but once Bradbury explained what it is about, I wasn't all that surprised any more. It makes perfect sense really, though I don't think it negates the book's power to say something useful about censorship.
It's going to be impossible to replace Yul Brynner, but the timing is about right for a Westworld remake, I think.
Kill All Monsters! editor Jason Rodriguez has some KAM! preview pages from the mini-series up on his blog. They're from a previous version of the script, so the language is a lot rougher than what's going to be in the final version. He also gives some nice behind-the-scenes info about some of the conversations we had in developing the book.
Superheroes
Fabian Nicieza will be writing a new Captain Action series for Moonstone. I actually pitched them an idea on this one, but I'd hire Nicieza over me too. I still really like my pitch though, so maybe I'll work it into something else. And I'll certainly be checking out Nicieza's version to see what he came up with.
At last, the moment I've been waiting for. Mike Weiringo's upgraded his blog so that you can link to individual posts now. Like this one with his version of Mary Marvel.
Writing is Hard
Paperback Writer has a ton of links to good writing blogs. I haven't checked them all out yet, but I look forward to doing that.
The Mummy 3 is in the works. Looks like Jet Li will be the bad guy and it's being written by Smallville's Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, which is all fine. Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious, xXx) is directing and that's okay too. I'm just concerned that Stephen Sommers' producing credit means that we'll still get cheap, video-game-quality special effects for it. But maybe that's Cohen's call and I just don't know enough about how movies are made. Actually, if it is Cohen's decision to make, I'm very happy about that because the effects in his other adventure movies have been pretty darn cool.
Siskoid's Blog of Geekery should be called Blog of Awesomeness. He's been reviewing every episode of Star Trek, including the cartoon series, and is up into the movies now. I'm hoping he keeps it going through Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and the others. He also sprinkles in plenty of comics posts for variety. This is a blog I'm going to have to go back and read from its beginning.
Just discovered a cool site called First Writer with lots of advice and resources for beginning writers. They help find agents, publishers, contests, magazine markets, and lots of other stuff.
Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me
Men in Trees has been renewed for another season. Yeah, it's a girly show, but it's got great dialogue and interesting characters. I like it as much as I liked the first couple of seasons of Gilmore Girls, and that's a lot. (In that same link, Lost and Grey's Anatomy have also been renewed, but those are news to nobody.)
This isn't really genre-related, but I've made no secret about my love for the character-driven writing on Grey's Anatomy, so maybe it won't be a surprise that I'm talking about it. ABC's looking into a Grey's spin-off starring Kate Walsh as Addison Montgomery.
There's no title yet and the plot is still being worked on, but they're hoping to air a pilot as early as May, according to the Wall Street Journal (the article is truncated unless you're a subscriber, but you can get the whole story at Grey's Anatomy Insider).
Although (Grey's creator Shonda) Rhimes and ABC think Walsh’s character can continue to evolve on Grey’s Anatomy, it became clear in recent months that her position on the show was changing, say people familiar with the matter. Now divorced from Derek and friendly with Meredith, Addison has had fewer ways to keep busy - and fewer fireworks to entertain viewers.
ABC is approaching the spinoff in a smart way, says Norman Lear, the TV producer who refined the art of the spinoff in the 1970s when his All in the Family spawned a record five new shows.
I've grown to love Addison since she first appeared on Grey's. She was introduced as something of a witch, but the writers promised that it would become impossible to hate her, and they were right. Her desperate vulnerability in trying to win back the husband she'd cheated on won me over. As much as I enjoy the heat between her and Alex on the show, if they're struggling to find stuff for her to do, spinning her off into her own deal is great news.
