Title: Bruce Campbell returns to series television
Description: BURN NOTICE
William S. Wilson - June 28, 2007 05:04 PM (GMT)
Not really a series I'm interested in (could the title be prophetic for audiences?), but it is nice to see Bruce getting regular work on a series. He is the sidekick to the lead in this spy tale. It debuts tonight. There is an interview up with Bruce at the site:
http://www.usanetwork.com/series/burnnotice/ Marty McKee - June 28, 2007 05:57 PM (GMT)
Again I ask: why isn't Bruce the star of this series? Is there any show on television that wouldn't be better with Bruce Campbell in it?
Domenick Fraumeni - June 28, 2007 08:58 PM (GMT)
Is this being shot in Miami? i can't tell much from the tiny box showing the commercial.
Peter Avellino - June 28, 2007 10:05 PM (GMT)
The imdb page indicates that the show is actually filming in Miami. I know, I know, never trust the imdb, but the discussion board includes a posting titled "They are filming right here in Miami!" so maybe they really are.
Marty McKee - June 28, 2007 11:11 PM (GMT)
It could be like KAREN SISCO, NYPD BLUE or the CSI shows, where they shoot second-unit on location and every month or so ship down some actors to do a few scenes, but almost everything is actually done in Hollywood. I wouldn't be surprised if the pilot was made entirely in Miami, though. I hope the whole series is shot there; it would be a refreshing respite from the same L.A./Vancouver scenery.
Chester Berne - June 29, 2007 01:14 PM (GMT)
It was pretty good, but seems to follow the plotline of Showtime's Dexter way to closely. Nice to see Bruce on the tube, though!
Marty McKee - July 1, 2007 07:29 PM (GMT)
For the first time ever, Bruce Campbell is not the most charming cast member of a show he's in. Jeffrey Donovan is funny and fantastic as the whimsical hero who's sort of a mixture of Jim Rockford, MacGyver and the Saint. Fans of old-school adventure shows will probably get a big kick out of BURN NOTICE, at least judging from its 90-minute (with commercials) pilot. I never saw Donovan's previous USA series, TOUCHING EVIL, but now I wish I had. On the other hand, if its ratings had been better, he probably wouldn't be doing BURN NOTICE. I was not so infatuated with Gabrielle Anwar as his Irish ex-girlfriend, however. Bruce is the fat, drunken comic-relief sidekick; think Lee Majors in RAVEN. I'm not certain BURN NOTICE was shot entirely on location, since sometimes the actors are standing in front of an obvious green screen, making the show look cheaper than it probably is. It seems quite compatible with MONK and PSYCH, and I hope the episodes to come capitalize on its promising pilot.
William S. Wilson - July 2, 2007 06:28 PM (GMT)
The show did pretty good ratings too with 4 million tuning into the debut.
| QUOTE |
USA Network's new series "Burn Notice" has gotten off to a good start.
The series, starring Jeffrey Donovan as a spy who suddenly finds himself blacklisted, averaged 4 million total viewers in its commercial-free debut from 10-11 p.m. Thursday, according to Nielsen Media Research. That includes 2 million viewers in the adults 18-49 demo and 2.2 million in adults 25-54, making it the No. 1 basic cable program of the night in both demos.
"Burn" built on its lead-in, the finale of the limited series "The Starter Wife" (3.1 million total viewers), and outperformed a repeat of ABC's "Men in Trees" in the demos. |
Lisa Larkin - July 3, 2007 03:55 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Marty McKee @ Jul 1 2007, 01:29 PM) |
| For the first time ever, Bruce Campbell is not the most charming cast member of a show he's in. Jeffrey Donovan is funny and fantastic as the whimsical hero who's sort of a mixture of Jim Rockford, MacGyver and the Saint. Fans of old-school adventure shows will probably get a big kick out of BURN NOTICE, at least judging from its 90-minute (with commercials) pilot. I never saw Donovan's previous USA series, TOUCHING EVIL, but now I wish I had. On the other hand, if its ratings had been better, he probably wouldn't be doing BURN NOTICE. I was not so infatuated with Gabrielle Anwar as his Irish ex-girlfriend, however. Bruce is the fat, drunken comic-relief sidekick; think Lee Majors in RAVEN. I'm not certain BURN NOTICE was shot entirely on location, since sometimes the actors are standing in front of an obvious green screen, making the show look cheaper than it probably is. It seems quite compatible with MONK and PSYCH, and I hope the episodes to come capitalize on its promising pilot. |
I'm one of the few who watched TOUCHING EVIL and I really liked it a lot. Donovan was even more quirky in that one, as a cop with a brain injury which made him very unpredictable. He had no sense of shame, for example. It was an interesting twist on the original UK show, which was pretty much your standard police procedural, though a good one.