PASADENA, Calif. — Picking up a series starring an apparently reformed hard-living warlock Vatican assassin without having seen a single script, much less a pilot, is not a “cynical publicity stunt” — it’s a “roll of the dice,” FX president John Landgraf insisted Sunday at Winter TV Press Tour 2012. Read full article > >

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The TV Column: FX rolls dice on Sheen’s new sitcom, ‘Anger Management’

Screenplays used to emulate novels. Now, for better and for worse, many novels emulate teleplays. In this media age of quick cuts and short attention spans, audiences and readers alike have adapted to stories without an identifiable protagonist, much less a hero. Many narratives, on-screen and on the page, feature a big cast of characters wrangling multiple storylines. Read full article > >

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‘The Train of Small Mercies’: Portraits in shared grief

Pending catastrophe is not an easy notion to entertain, much less sustain. Americans, moreover, have a low tolerance for doom and gloom. We are the nation of optimism, after all. We elect leaders who promise hope and change. We are the shining city on a hill.

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Gut-check time for a land of financial gloom and doom

President George W. Bush got both jokey and hokey during his interview with Oprah. “A lot of people didn’t think I could read, much less write,” the former president said, without irony. Bush described the day after his presidency came to an end; “So,…

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Bush Gets Teary on Oprah