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Tag: Charlie

  • It’s a first! Watch 4 Hollywood premieres on &pictures

    It’s a first! Watch 4 Hollywood premieres on &pictures

    MUMBAI: As the month of December approaches, the air is filled with hearty celebrations and entertainment galore. In keeping with the festive spirit and continuing to provide its audiences with fresh and clutter-breaking content, &pictures, India’s premium Hindi movie channel will soon premiere an amalgamation of four blockbuster action-packed Hollywood movies for the first time ever on Hindi television! Airing under its popular band ‘Hollywood Sundays’, the channel will also offer its viewers an exciting movie experience as the mega-hit movies premieres will be simulcast on &pictures as well as &pictures HD every Sunday at 12 noon from 7 December.

     

    &pictures will showcase an exciting line-up of superhit Hollywood blockbusters, starting with Charlie’s Angels- Full Throttle, starring Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz in the lead. The story revolves around the action packed life of three angels who investigate a series of murders which occur after the theft of a witness protection profile database. Next in the line-up on December 14th is Transformers starring Shia Labeouf, Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel, a science fiction action film based on the Transformers toy line. The film combines computer animation with live-action. The next movie on 21st December is Mission Impossible 3 starring Tom Cruise, Michelle Monaghan and Ving Rhames. The story follows the action-packed mission of Ethan Hunt who comes face to face with a dangerous and sadistic arms dealer while trying to keep his identity secret in order to protect his girlfriend. Culminating the festive programming is the light hearted, fast-moving animation film Kung Fu Panda on 28th December, a movie that fits every age group and has been exceedingly loved and adored by all.

     

    Speaking of the festive line-up, Ruchir Tiwari, Deputy Business Head, Hindi Movie Channels, ZEEL, stated, “This festive season, we want to give our viewers a complete family entertainment with a mix of action, comedy and animated movies on Hollywood Sundays. We have hand-picked the best of Hollywood titles and are certain that our audiences will enjoy watching them.”

  • Laugh 2013 Off’ with Comedy Central

    Laugh 2013 Off’ with Comedy Central

    MUMBAI: For those who prefer to sit and homes and enjoy, Comedy Central has something exciting to offer. The channel believes that the only memories one should have are those filled with uncontrollable laughter.

     

    So to relive those memories, the channel has geared for ‘Laugh 2013 Off’ which kicked off on the Christmas day and will continue till 31 December. Viewers will get a chance to see the reruns of the best shows in the year 2013.

     

    The year started with the channel airing Anger Management followed by Suits. Apart from them, other famous American sitcoms such as ‘Whitney’, ‘Awkward’ and ‘Outsourced’ were also aired by the channel.

     

    These three shows have also been picked for the week and that makes it the Fantastic Five for ‘Laugh 2013 Off!’ Harvey Spector’s antics, Charlie’s debacles, Whitney’s daily hilarity, Jenna’s humorous teenage struggles and Todd’s fun encounter the perfect laughter riot!

  • Laugh 2013 Off with Comedy Central India

    Laugh 2013 Off with Comedy Central India

    MUMBAI: Comedy Central India believes that the only memories one should have are those filled with uncontrollable laughter! So relive these memories with Comedy Central’s ‘Laugh 2013 Off’ starting Wednesday, December 25 to Tuesday, December 31, 2013 from 5:00pm – 10:00pm. This special week will see re-runs of the best shows that tickled everyone’s funny bone this year.

    2013 started with a bang as Comedy Central India aired Anger Management followed by Suits, both shows that became an instant hit in the comedy genre. It is only natural for the year to end with some of the best moments of both the shows. This year also saw famous American sitcoms such as ‘Whitney’, ‘Awkward’ and ‘Outsourced’ which entertained audiences with the antics of the protagonist of each show. These three shows have also been picked for the week and that makes it the Fantastic Five for Laugh 2013 Off! Harvey Spector’s antics, Charlie’s debacles, Whitney’s daily hilarity, Jenna’s humorous teenage struggles and Todd’s fun encounter the perfect laughter riot!

    So set your reminders for 5:00pm – 10:00 pm from Wednesday, December 25 – Tuesday, December 31, 2013 with Laugh 2013 Off only on Comedy Central!

  • ZeeQ brings internationally – acclaimed animated shows to India

    ZeeQ brings internationally – acclaimed animated shows to India

    MUMBAI: ZeeQ, India’s first edutainment channel is all set to launch the animated series Dinosaur Train and Zou in India. The channel has acquired the Indian rights for these series which cater to the preschooler audiences.

     

    Dinosaur Train has been honored by the Parents’ Choice Silver Honor TV series award, which is a mark of acceptance by parents as a preferred choice for their toddlers’ TV viewing. The half-hour show features two animated episodes with a real paleontologist interacting with kids who love to explore the world around them. Dinosaur Train, the Emmy nominated series, starting today, will air every Monday to Thursday at 4:30 pm on ZeeQ.

     

    The second offering is Zou, a French hit animated preschool series, which follows the adventure of a lovable five-year-old Zebra. The show subtly touches every theme of early childhood and aims to inculcate family values in children. Zou has been broadcasted in more than 140 territories and in 24 different languages around the world. The series became a worldwide success within a year of its telecast in the UK. Starting 28 August, Zou will air every Wednesday and Thursday at 2:00 pm on ZeeQ.

     

    With the launch of Dinosaur Train and Zou, ZeeQ aims at strengthening its preschooler program portfolio. Some of the other well-known preschooler animated series that air on ZeeQ are from the CBeebies brand namely Teletubbies, Charlie and Lola and 3rd & Bird.

     

    Commenting on the development, ZeeQ business head Subhadarshi Tripathy says, “ZeeQ has been working towards bringing in content that is in the best interest of children and their parents. Both the series provide clean and safe content for preschool children. While Dinosaur Train helps in building scientific thinking through the content of the show, Zou aims to inculcate lessons about growing up and family values. Such educative series help in early childhood brain development and instill moral values at their tender age.”

     

    ZeeQ caters to the 0-14 year age segment. The channel currently airs a mix of live-action and animated shows. Some of its prominent shows include Teenovation, Science with BrainCafé, Word Match and M.I. Four – The Multiple Intelligence Quiz.

  • BBC Worldwide sells two kids shows across the globe

    BBC Worldwide sells two kids shows across the globe

    MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide has announced a string of international sales for two of its key children’s programmes – The Secret Show and Charlie and Lola.

    The commercial arm of the BBC has licensed new animation show The Secret Show to broadcasters in France, Hong Kong, Finland, Russia and the Middle East – bringing the total to 13. It will also start airing on Virgin transatlantic flights from 1 December 2006.

    Aimed at 7-12 year olds, The Secret Show is about secret people doing secret things. Special agents Victor Volt and Anita Knight work for U.Z.Z, protecting the world against the evil forces of T.H.E.M. Managed by a boss whose name is quite literally ‘Changed Daily’, and assisted on their madcap missions by insane scientist Professor Professor, Victor and Anita manage to save the world – or large parts of it – once or sometimes even twice a week.

    Charlie and Lola which is based on the books by Lauren Child, has just been licensed to 3 new broadcasters – IRIB in Iran, TVB in Hong Kong and Playhouse Disney in Spain. The pre-school animation, which is a mix of 2D CelAction animation, paper cutout, fabric design, real textures, photomontage and archive footage, has now been sold to 33 countries.

    Snow Queen was sold to Al Jazeera’s children’s channel and World of Peter Rabbit & Friends and Tale of Peter Rabbit & Beatrix Potter were sold to Momo TV in Taiwan.

  • American television loses an iconic producer in Aaron Spelling

    A few days ago (Friday, 23 June) Aaron Spelling, who holds the Guinness World Record as the most prolific producer in television, passed away. The 83-year-old, who died in his mansion in Los Angeles, had suffered a stroke on 18 June.In a career spanning an astonishing five decades, Spelling, who had a great fear of flying, worked in one form or another on nearly 200 projects on both television and film.

    Such was his sphere of influence that a trivia fact on imdb.com indicates that in the 1970s, when he had one hit show after another, he had so many shows on ABC with who he had a contract that insiders used to joke that ABC stood for “Aaron‘s Broadcasting Company”. He was involved with around 70 weekly television series, which amounted to around 4,220 hours. Back to back it would take 176 days to watch all of them.

    Born into a Jewish family, Spelling, in his early life, had to fight against the tag of being different. He started his career in Hollywood in the 1950‘s. Success did not come in a hurry though. He spent some time as a writer and as a bit-player actor (he was a gas station attendant in an episode of I Love Lucy). He then donned the hat of a producer thanks to a break given by Dick Powell.

    His first hit was the crime drama Burke‘s Law, starring Gene Barry. However it was the next show The Mod Squad in 1969 that paved the way for his path breaking career. In the 1970‘s he cemented his reputation by producing one great show after another. Some of them included S.W.A.T., Starsky and Hutch, Charlie‘s Angels, which were conceptually so appealing that Hollywood, desperately searching for ideas, made them into films a few decades later.

    Charlie‘s Angels showed women in a role other than a homemaker happy with kids. It is justly considered ground breaking in terms of having women who took care of business and did not need a man to look after them. More importantly it gave young girls in the 1970‘s and 1980‘s strong role models to look up to.

    Starsky and Hutch was one of the first great cop shows on American television. It paved the way for numerous cop shows including the likes of Miami Vice.

    There are two clear reasons for Spellings‘ success. One was his keen sense of intuition of what audiences at a particular point of time wanted to watch. The other was the fact that he always respected the viewer. Spelling was also great in the casting arena, a prime example being Charlies Angels which made household names out of Jaclyn Smith, Kate Jackson and most of all, Farrah Fawcett.

    That is a knack he never lost. In the 1990‘s he produced Beverly Hills 90210 which is considered to have defined a generation of privileged youth who despite being surrounded by luxury in the svelte surroundings of Beverly Hills have anger issues. He was astute in casting his daughter Tori Spelling as a teen. While the father and daughter did subsequently have their differences, Tori issued a statement saying that she was glad that she had the chance to reconcile with her dad before he passed away.

    Another piece of great casting was having Joan Collins play the matriarch in the long running soap Dynasty. This show in fact proved that Spelling was comfortable working in different genres.

    Spelling noted that Collins brought a huge aspect of her personality to the role which lent the show more bite. “We wrote a character, but the character could have been played by 50 people and 49 of them would have failed. She made it work.”

    So there was Dynasty on one hand an escapist soap and then there was Family. This was a far more realistic drama that ran from 1976-1980. Spelling had the courage to tackle among other subjects – homosexuality which even now Hollywood is skittish about tackling. Dynasty too had a gay character. More recently Spelling was involved with the supernatural show Charmed which airs in India on Star World.

    Recently, 7th Heaven passed The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie as the longest-running family drama.

    In real life Spelling had a 123 room mansion in Los Angeles which many considered to be a parallel to the life of ease and excess that the rich characters in Dynasty lived. “The house that Dynasty built‘ is how tour operators describe his mansion to hordes of tourists. In fact, Spelling was known to on occasion wave a hello to tourists. the soure of his wealth came from Spelling-Goldberg Productions. In 1986 the company went public.

    Spelling may have made escapist crowd pleasing fare, but he was also not shy of working on projects that took a hard look at subjects. An example is the film And The Band Played On which looked at how Aids would not have been such a menace had the authorities paid more attention during the early days.

    As far as the critics were concerned Spelling had a choice to make. As he once said in an AP interview way back in 1986, “The knocks by the critics bother you, but you have a choice of proving yourself to 300 critics or 30 million fans.” Going by the ratings and the enduring appeal that his shows constantly got over the years, Spelling can rest in peace knowing that he fulfilled a mission that other producers will be lucky to come anywhere close to achieving.

  • ‘The Simpsons’ to have live title sequence

    ‘The Simpsons’ to have live title sequence

    MUMBAI: A live-action main title sequence of The Simpsons will be unveiled on 26 March on US broadcaster Fox.

    The live-action show opening is a homage to American television’s longest-running sitcom. From the Simpsons parting through the clouds to the infamous Bart writing on the chalkboard, Homer pulling the nuclear rod out of his shirt, Maggie scanned at the supermarket and the always-anticipated ‘couch gag’ conclusion, the live-action opening mirrors each element of the animated sequence.

    The greatest attention to detail was paid in this recreation by a British team, as conceived and commissioned by the UK network Sky One. From wardrobe to location settings to character mannerisms, it’s all translated with uncanny accuracy via real, flesh-and-blood actors.

    The show’s executive producer Al Jean says, “I am just amazed there are people who want to be known for looking like the Simpsons.”

    The centerpiece of Sky One’s new Simpsons campaign in the UK, the short will make its American debut in the all-new episode, Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife guest-starring yet another British import, Ricky Gervais. In the episode, Homer’s obsession with Lenny’s new plasma TV causes Marge to enter the family in a sweepstakes, where they win a prize to the Fox studio lot.

    Against Marge’s judgment, Homer signs the family up for a “Trading Spouses”-type show and is forced to take in a controlling wife, while Marge moves in with a beaten-down husband, Charlie (guest star Gervais), and his perfect son. Charlie quickly develops a crush on Marge, while she’s just trying to give him the strength to stand up to his own wife.