July 14, 2007

Blogging TCA: News Flash From TCA

Seth Arenstein, at the TV Critics Association summer press tour, finds HBO is the talk of other networks' panels

And they say miracles don’t happen in our day and age. Two sessions in a row—ESPN and Sundance Channel—came and went without TCA critics asking questions about the ending of The Sopranos and whether or not the actors were really doing it during the pilot of HBO’s Tell Me You Love Me. Incredible. 



Several TCA critics scampered off to their rooms after the panels, clearly embarrassed by their inability to connect any and all networks' panels with The Sopranos’ finale and explicit sex. “We were really sure that critics could link ESPN’s Monday Night Football and sex, but, remember, it’s Saturday afternoon and the critics have been going full bore for several days now. It’s understandable that they’re a bit off their game,” a senior TCA critic said by way of explanation.  



After a short strategy session, which included several pints of distilled spirits, the critics came back out for the late afternoon session with gusto. During Showtime's panel they asked chairman Matt Blank and programming head Bob Greenblatt about whether they’d have allowed David Chase to end The Sopranos with a black screen had the series been at Showtime. (For the record: no, they wouldn’t have.)



The Showtime duo also were grilled about the existence of a clause in the company’s handbook regarding actors, er, "doing it."
 Blank, before answering, asked whether that meant actors couldn’t do it, or just couldn’t do it on the set.

In a bit of witty banter that encapsulates why the week-long skull session known as Cable TCA ranks right up there intellectually with a discussion about why purple is the only color that fits Barney, Blank observed that simulated sex usually looks better on television. “In real life, too,” Greenblatt quipped.

• EARLIER: Blogging TCA: It's a Gig