TCA (Television Critics Association) Wednesday featured ABC today, with a CMA sponsored Barbecue lunch and a performance with Julianne Hough, followed by an afternoon of "Life on Mars", "Scrubs" and "Opportunity Knocks" panels. More on the last two in the next article
05/18/2008 - Julianne Hough - 43rd Academy Of Country Music Awards - Arrivals - MGM Grand Garden Arena - Las Vegas, NV. USA © PRN / PR Photos
Julianne Hough is a two-time winner on ABC's monster hit, "Dancing with the Stars," and graciously came to the TCA press tour at the Beverly Hilton on Wednesday as her country singer persona.
She has a new country album out and is currently touring with Brad Paisley. Hough will co-host the two hour special "CMA Music Festival - Country's Night to Rock" on ABC this September 8.
After singing for us, Hough answered many questions, and made mention of her chameleon-like vocal qualities. "When I lived in London, I had a full-on English accent. Nobody knew I was an American. Then I came back. I was an American with a Utah accent, and then I had been in Nashville for a few months, I kind of just pick it up wherever I go. So don't ask me to go to Germany or anything because that would be interesting..."
When asked what her country music inspirations were, she replied, "I grew up listening to Dolly Parton and Reba, I love Reba. I love Shania. Faith Hill, of course, I think she is such a beautiful woman, and she has a career but she also has a family and her kids. Growing up, listening to country music, that's what has turned me on to the music was the fact that it was just so real and normal and you can have a family and the life."
Off to the ballroom for a little tête-à-tête with Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) and Jason O'Mara, who plays a delicious revisiting (from season one) psychopath Billy Croelick in "The Closer" premiere episode. He now stars in "Life on Mars."
O'Mara as Sam
"Life on Mars" has had a bit of a bounce around; the BBC show adapted for the US, first to be set in LA, now firmly in New York City, which brings us to the logical casting of Michael Imperioli.
Executive producer Josh Appelbaum addressed the David Kelley involvement question. “There was a David Kelley version.” Kelley is no longer involved with the series. Both producers, Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec noted Imperioli brought "a distinct New York feel" to the role of Detective Ray Carling.
When asked what his criteria was for selecting work post "The Sopranos", Imperioli said, "I definitely was picky, and I wanted to find something juicy and different; honestly I had never heard of the project before I got the script....but the period (1973) and the flavor of it, I had an affinity for it..."
O’Mara plays Sam Tyler, a NYPD detective hit by a car and transported to 1973. The series is based on the BBC drama of the same name. Appelbaum said, “I think the main difference we’re bringing to it is moving the show to New York” from LA, Appelbaum noted every actor from the pilot except star Jason O’Mara was recast. Nemec added, "We're trying to recapture the spirit of the original BBC show."
“I’m the only survivor from the original pilot," O’Mara quipped. "Call it Irish luck."
Appelbaum and Nemec said they asked the British creators for the okay to expand the mythology in their version set in New York. “We know exactly where it is all going,” Appelbaum said, promising that “we know some of the pitfalls of telling these extended mythology stories.” Nemec noted that it is "not a time travel show.”
“We are not going back and forth between 1973 and 2008,” he added. Appelbaum noted the premise has you guessing if it is a coma, if Sam just lost his mind or did he travel through time. "The mythological element to it, we are having a blast in the writer's room, but we know where it is all going."
Both producers assuaged one TCA press member's concerns that the all important 1973 period details may get confused in production, perhaps with a stray iPod showing up in frame.
Appelbaum and Nemec lauded their art department that includes production designer Peter Politanoff, art director Natalie Richards, set designers Marco Miehe and Steven Saylor along with their prop master who they claim have all the proper settings, items and ephemera true to 1973 - a moment in US history fraught with an unpopular war, disliked president, high gas prices, gas rationing and terrible inflation and recession woes. Not so much has changed.
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