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Posts tagged as zooey deschanel

Brilliantly Canceled

'Cracking Up': The Show That Made Mike White Crazy

by | March 11th, 2013

It's a story as old as time and one that sadly continues to be relevant, usually on network television: a well meaning individual has a perfectly sculpted vision of a great television show in his or her mind. Then several evil network executives destroy that beautiful, untainted concept with copious notes that will turn that "artist friendly" idea into the first show in history to appeal to every human being in the world. It will also make somewhere in the vicinity of ten billion dollars. It pisses off the creator, and usually the project never sees the light of day, and possibly dreams of cable pastures fill the brain. [...]

The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson

The Simpsons Are Heading Back to New York City and Other Season 24 News

by | September 10th, 2012

Last time the Simpsons were in New York City, Lisa asked Homer if they'd ever come back. To which Homer responded, "We'll see, honey … we'll see." Well, 15 real world years and, I guess, zero Simpsons years later, they finally are. Surprisingly they aren't returning to quench Homer's thirst for crab juice; no, they're going for love. Al Jean told TV Line:

Yes, in the season premiere. Lisa points out to Bart that any girl who likes him dumps him after a week. He’s very dejected by this, and Mary [Spuckler] turns out to be his last hope. So he tracks her down. She’s run away from home [...]

Women in Comedy

How Female Hosts Are Making SNL's Season Memorable

by | February 27th, 2012

Anna Faris, Zooey Deschanel, Melissa McCarthy, Emma Stone, Maya Rudolph: this article makes a good case for why this season of SNL has been so "unusually rich in funny, provocative female-focused moments." Amazing recent female performances in movies and TV translates into comedically stronger female hosts, which means sketches that don't just feature that host as a straight man or "hot girl." Time to chalk "better SNL episodes" up on our gigantic list of reasons to keep making funny movies about women, right?

Promos

Zooey Deschanel and Kenan Thompson's SNL Promos Are Dy-no-mite

by | February 8th, 2012

The true gift of SNL promos is that they repeat a star's name often enough that anyone who sees them will never mispronounce it again. Byu-SEM-ee. Day-shuh-NEL. Got it. Pronunciation hints aside, Zooey and Kenan have a fun time in their promos singing, jazz-handing, and educating the youth about black entrepreneurial icons. Ain't that a punch in the teeth?

Sitcoms

Fox Is Betting You Want a Full Season of New Girl, Don't You?

by | September 29th, 2011

Iron your Peter Pan collars and get out your ukulele, Fox has picked up Zooey Deschanel's New Girl for a whole season. After this week's episode drew high ratings comparable to those of the show's premiere, New Girl becomes the first fall show to get a back-nine order, which is fancy talk for bringing the New Girl's number of ordered episodes to 24. Just enough time for all of those roommates to fall secretly in love with her. Oh, Jess!

Business Deals

Zooey Deschanel Launches Her Own TV Production Company

by | February 15th, 2013

Zooey Deschanel and her Hello Giggles partner Sophia Rossi launched a new TV production company today. Deadline reports that the duo has signed a two-year first look deal to produce and develop new shows for 20th Century Fox TV, the studio that produces her hit sitcom New Girl. The duo recently sold a comedy to Fox as producers called Must Be Nice, which was created by New Girl writer/consulting producer J.J. Philbin. While Fox didn't order that show to pilot this season, it's just the first of many shows Deschanel and Rossi will be putting together for the studio. It's just a matter of coming up with a [...]

Roundtables

Potentially Emmy Nominated Actresses Discuss Being Funny and Farts and Vaginas

by | June 20th, 2012

"So many Emmy roundtables so little time," says everyone this month. "But they talk about farting on set," says I! Also, this roundtable takes place around a square table, which makes it slightly more visually interesting. In the full, uncut version below they discuss hosting SNL, the non-controversy (or nontroversy) surrounding women being funny, and more.

Recaps

SNL Recap: Zooey Deschanel Gets Quirky

by | February 13th, 2012

In the world of improv comedy, there is a popular show format in which an ensemble improvises scenes inspired by a true story told by a guest monologist. The inclination during these shows is to reenact scenes from a new comedic point of view, or to riff on a specific detail from the story, for example the monologist getting a fact wrong or mispronouncing a word. However, the show seems to be the most successful when the ensemble mines the monologist’s story for deep-rooted emotions, themes or personality traits, and then uses the scenes to collectively “respond” to the monologist. The scenes become a thematic statement about the kind [...]

SNL

Zooey Deschanel, Channing Tatum and Bon Iver Are Coming to Studio 8H

by | January 11th, 2012

Channing Tatum will host SNL on Feb. 4 with musical guest Bon Iver, and Zooey Deschanel will host on Feb. 11, when she will hopefully come ukelele-to-ukelele with Abby Elliott's impersonation of her. I smell a cute bangs/vintage dress showdown!

Am I Right Ladies?

Ladies Be Actin': The NYTimes Profiles The New Female Faces Of Network TV

by | September 15th, 2011

The New York Times' David Itzkoff writes an interesting if somewhat meandering profile of several women starring in brand-new shows this fall, including Zooey Deschanel, Whitney Cummings, Kat Dennings, Krysten Ritter, and Amber Heard. Each performer has a differing opinion about why there seems to be more TV-untested actresses heading up prominent new shows this year, though superior writing, a noticeable decrease in fulfilling feature film roles and the ever-shifting culture zeitgeist are offered as explanations. The Playboy Club's Laura Benanti really takes A to C when trying to explain it how the premise of her show (being a Playboy Bunny) is, in actuality, the reason we'll have [...]

Reviews

Checking In with 'New Girl' Halfway Through Season 2

by | January 15th, 2013

Back in 2011, I was skeptical about New Girl. It’s no surprise that a sitcom built to showcase Zooey Deschanel’s cutesy-cool charm might suffer some initial snap judgments, and I’ll admit, it took a few episodes for me to really fall in love. But a season and a half in, it’s clear the show’s skill in exploring – and poking fun at – its own sweetness has made it a deservedly stand-out series for FOX.

Season One started with a simple premise: what happens when a super cute, super sheltered girl finds herself newly single and shacked up with a trio of handsome (and heartwarmingly sweet) new roomies? New [...]

Backlash

"Funny people are flawed people"

by | May 8th, 2012

On the one hand, this TV season has had more sitcoms staring women than any in recent memory, which is good! On the other hand, all those funny ladies on TV have been subject to a pretty unfair level of scrutiny and blowback, as the characters they portray are generally flawed people and don't do a great job of representing their entire demographic. Because, you know, they're not supposed to. It's a pretty shitty thing, and while Lena Dunham and Girls have borne the brunt of the flawed funny ladies blowback lately, Zooey Deschanel's character on New Girl got her fair share of criticism as well, especially in the [...]

Etymology

Tracing the Origin of the Word "Adorkable"

by | February 10th, 2012

People are finally coming around to enjoying, rather than irrationally hating, Fox’s New Girl. Rightly so, though before I go any further, I feel a disclaimer is needed: I like Zooey Deschanel a lot, partially because I’m a 24-year-old glasses-wearing male who lives in Brooklyn and also enjoys NRBQ, but also because I think she’s a gifted comedic actress who isn’t putting on a persona; I believe her Zooey Wowee image is the real her.

But enough about me — let’s talk about “adorkable.”

Awards

The Golden Globes Love Them Some New Girl

by | December 15th, 2011

Nominations for the Gilded Globules are out! All comedy-relevant nominations are listed below. It looks like Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig don't have too much competition for Best Actress in a Comedy Movie and TV Series, respectively, and Modern Family will likely take home the Globe for Best Comedy TV Series. Interestingly, though, New Girl got a lot of attention, with nominations for the series and for Zooey Deschanel. She's just too darn charming not to nominate, I guess.

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