TCA Press Tour 2011 Day 2: Dr. Drew, Mike Tyson and Oprah
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The winter 2011 edition of the Television Critics’ Assn. press tour got busy today in Pasadena with presentations from Turner Communications’ networks, Playboy, BET, and Discovery Communications.
Rob Corddry took the stage with the cast (including Megan Mullally and Henry Winkler) of Adult Swim hospital satire ‘Children’s Hospital.’ Corddry asked the crowd to address him with questions for Dr Drew, who was also at TCA waiting for his own panel -- and then Corddry responded to the journalist as Dr Drew. ‘Were you molested?’
When the real Dr. Drew presented his new HLN talk show, he spoke more seriously about using this new show as a platform to get to ‘the bottom line’ on addicted and troubled celebrities and others. Up next, Piers Morgan served up a full dose of bravado as he boasted about the delights soon to come as he takes over Larry King’s throne at CNN.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar showed off his good hair in his panel for the upcoming TNT legal drama ‘Franklin and Bash,’ in which he stars with Breckin Meyer and Malcolm McDowell and Ray Romano discussed the appeal of ‘Men of a Certain Age.’
Mike Tyson kicked off the afternoon session with a panel on his forthcoming Animal Planet series ‘Taking on Tyson’ -- not a show about boxing but about pigeon racing, a topic vhe spoke about very excitedly.
Tyson (and then Ricky Gervais, who followed with a seemingly science-free show, ‘An Idiot Abroad,’ to air on the Science Channel) was just an aperitif to the main event of the afternoon, which was the arrival of OWN: the Oprah Winfrey Network.
The network presented the contestants who are auditioning for ‘Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next Reality Star,’ Oprah BFF Gayle King took questions on her new live show, and then finally Oprah herself appeared, clad in vivid shades of purple. Oprah talked -- and talked and talked -- about her mission for the new brand new network. ‘I don’t think it’s wise for us at this moment to go announcing that we’re the spiritual channel,’ she said. ‘There are many different ways to assert the nature of what is good without labeling it that.
Up tomorrow: more cable networks, among them AMC, WE, IFC, A&E, Hallmark, Starz, and HBO, featuring everyone from Joan and Melissa Rivers to Kate Winslet and Pee-wee Herman.
-- Joy Press
twitter.com/joypress
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