New and returning shows for the 2011 season

Here's a roundup of some of the highlights of the new and returning series in the 2011 fall TV season.

“Survivor: South Pacific” 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, CBS: (season premiere) The contestants begin competing for a million-dollar prize. (N)

“H8R” 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, KTLA: (series premiere) TV personality Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi tries to win over a person who dislikes her; Jake Pavelka (“Bachelor”) faces his biggest hater. (N)

“America's Next Top Model” 9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, KTLA: (season premiere) Fan-favorite contestants from past cycles return to compete; the women reenact memorable moments during the first photo shoot; guest judge Nicki Minaj. (N)

“Operation Repo” 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, Tru: (season premiere) Vehicle repossession pros deal with confrontations in California's San Fernando Valley. (N)

“Up All Night” 10 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, NBC: (series premiere) Reagan Brinkley tries to adjust to her new life as she returns from maternity leave to her job as a talk show executive producer to support her stay-at-home husband and their baby. (N)

“Hulk Hogan's Micro Championship Wrestling” 10 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, Tru: (series premiere) Hulk Hogan provides little wrestlers with advice, guidance and training; inside all of the insane action, conflict and drama that it takes to create a pro wrestling league from scratch. (N)

“Free Agents” 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, NBC: (series premiere) Two co-workers, both still reeling from their last relationships, try to sort out their relationship after a moment of weakness finds them in bed together. (N)

“The Vampire Diaries” 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, KTLA: (season premiere) In "The Birthday," Caroline plans a party for Elena's 18th birthday; Damon and Elena search for Stefan; Klaus and Stefan track a werewolf; Jeremy struggles with visions of ghosts. (N)

“The Secret Circle” 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, KTLA: (series premiere) After her mother dies in a mysterious accident, Cassie Blake moves to a small town to live with her grandmother. After a series of strange and dangerous events, Cassie's new friends reveal a secret. (N)

“Angels Among Us” 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, CMT: (series premiere) Commemorating the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. (N)

“It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia” 10 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, FX: (season premiere) In "Frank's Pretty Woman," the gang attempts an image makeover to uncover the heart of gold that exists deep inside Frank's prostitute fiancee. (N)

“Archer” 10:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, FX: (season premiere) In "Heart of Archness, Part I," Archer is finally tracked down in the South Pacific by handsome adventurer Rip Riley. (Part 1 of 3) (N)

“Ben 10: Ultimate Alien” 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16, Toon Disney: (season premiere) In "The Purge," Old George reignites a war against all aliens on Earth. (N)

“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16, Toon Disney: (season premiere) In "Water War: Gungan Attack," inhabitants of Mon Calamari are on the brink of civil war; the Jedi realize they need help from a powerful and amphibious ally to drive out Separatist invaders. (N)

“Need to Know” 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16, KOCE: (season premiere) Reports on the economy, environment and energy, health, national security and culture. (N)

“20/20” 10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16, ABC: (season premiere) Investigative reporting. (N)

“Celebrity Nightmares Decoded” 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17, Biography: (series premiere) Dustin "Screech” Diamond dreams of a faceless butcher; Danielle Staub wakes up hanging out of her bed after a nightmare; Nicole Eggert is tormented by snakes in her nightmares; Too Short dreams of meeting a ferocious dog. (N)

“How I Met Your Mother” 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 19, CBS: (season premiere) In "The Best Man," Barney and Ted reminisce about Punchy's wedding; Robin considers confessing her feelings. (N) 

“The Sing-Off” 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 19, NBC: (season premiere) Eight of the 16 competing groups unite to perform together. (N) 

'Boardwalk Empire' scores big at Creative Arts Emmys

Someone get Nucky Johnson a stiff drink: HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” reigned supreme at this year’s Creative Arts Emmys.

The period drama -- set in 1920 Atlantic City as the dawn of Prohibition begins to shift the landscape for mobsters, politicians and the like -- received seven awards, including casting for a drama and cinematography for a drama, during Saturday’s ceremony, which was held at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.

"Boardwalk's" big night helped its home base, HBO, in nabbing a total of 15 trophies, including three for "Mildred Pierce."

Held before next week’s Primetime Emmy Awards, the majority of statuettes are presented during the Creative Arts ceremony -- with technical categories the primary focus, and guest actors and reality recognitions also awarded.

PHOTOS: Creative Arts Emmys red carpet

Reality series "Deadliest Catch," which airs on Discovery Channel, held its own, taking home four trophies, including noncompetition reality program. And veteran "Survivor" host Jeff Probst earned his fourth win as reality host.

Stars with multi-talents also proved to be advantageous: Gwyneth Paltrow was awarded guest actress for her three-episode arc on Fox’s comedy "Glee" and singer-turned-actor Justin Timberlake scored a double Emmy win for guest actor in a comedy series and one for original music and lyrics or his "Justin Timberlake monologue" -- both related to his hosting duties on "Saturday Night Live." The late-night sketch show has been fruitful for the "Social Network" star, who took home outstanding original music lyrics for "D**k in a Box" in 2007.

Other winners included "Glee" for comedy casting and "The Walking Dead" for prosthetic makeup. In addition, "Futurama" was crowned top animated series while the "64th Annual Tony Awards" won in the special class category.

Second to HBO, PBS scored 10 wins, including costumes for a miniseries, movie or special ("Downton Abbey") and writing for nonfiction programming ("Freedom Writers").

The Creative Arts Emmys will air Sept. 17 on Reelz.  

Emmys in the remaining 25 categories will be presented during the 2011 Primetime Emmy Awards telecast Sept. 18 on Fox. 

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--Yvonne Villarreal
twitter.com/villarrealy

Photo: Steve Buscemi as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson in HBO's "Boardwalk Empire." Credit: HBO

TCA 2011: Ken Burns on 'Prohibition' and 'Boardwalk Empire'

"Prohibition," an upcoming documentary from filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick about the nation's ill-fated attempt to ban alcohol, will almost certainly run up against HBO's booze-soaked Prohibition-era drama "Boardwalk Empire" this fall.

Burns, speaking to reporters at the TV press tour in Beverly Hills Sunday evening, said he wasn't worried about the competition - and then confessed he watched the acclaimed program which garnered 18 Emmy nominations. (The new three-part, six-hour Burns documentary is slated to launch Sunday, October 2, while HBO's period drama airs Sunday nights - meaning the two programs that revolve around alcohol could overlap for half an hour or so.) 

"I've really enjoyed watching it," he said. "Americans always love to watch people who get to kill people who piss them off."

"And women who take their clothes off at the drop of a hat," added the documentarian.

TCA 2011: Full coverage of upcoming shows from the Television Critics Press Tour

Burns said that while the fevered drive to pass the 18th Amendment parallels aspects of the politics of our day - single-issue movements, the "tea party," lack of civil discourse, the debate over marijuana, etc., -the documentary has no overt agenda.

"We are not political filmmakers," said Burns who encourages the audience to draw their own conclusions about the relevancy of the bygone era with today. "We don't have a political ax to grind."

Ultimately, added Burns, the effort to outlaw alcohol failed miserably. Among other things, it turned half the nation into lawbreakers and created organized crime.

And, you know, led to that HBO show, too.  

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Photo: Left to right, Ken Burns, Daniel Okrent and Lynn Novick at TV press tour. Credit: Rahoul Ghose / PBS

Golden Globes: 'Glee' wins again. And again. And again.

Get those slushees ready: Awards favorite "Glee" beat the competition again at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, with awards going to supporting actor Chris Colfer, supporting actress Jane Lynch and  television series, comedy or musical.

"Boardwalk Empire" followed with two statues, one for dramatic actor Steve Buscemi and the other for dramatic television series.

The night's underdog awards went to Katey Sagal, who beat critical favorites Julianna Margulies and Elisabeth Moss to win for her dramatic role on "Sons of Anarchy," and Laura Linney, who edged out Tina Fey and Edie Falco for her comedic role on "The Big C." "The Big Bang Theory" star Jim Parsons, who has won Emmys but has been ignored by the Globes in the past, won for comedic actor.

For more about these Globes winners, check out our post here.

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-- Melissa Maerz

Photo: The cast of "Glee." Credit: Lucy Nicholson / Reuters.

'Boardwalk Empire' recap: The grand finale

For a lot of people, "Boardwalk Empire" had to have a dynamite finale in order to have a successful first season. I would have been more forgiving of a finale that simply moved things forward an inch or two, given how much I've enjoyed much of the season, but even I was feeling deflated by the first third of "A Return to Normalcy." There's not a lot that happens, and while everything in that first third is beautifully written and acted, it's hard not to fear that this is all going to end with a long, quiet exhale, rather than the bang the season's been leading up to. It's often realistic to end on a bit of anticlimax, honestly, but Nucky and his team had been tracking the D'Alessios for so long that the audience could be forgiven for just wanting to see a little violence. "Boardwalk Empire" has always been handsome, but it hasn't often been visceral, and "Normalcy" was the season's last, best shot at hitting the audience square in the gut.

Fortunately, "A Return to Normalcy" delivered that punch to the gut in spades, probably starting with the scene where Margaret sees the names of Nucky's dead wife and son on a gravestone while she's out for an All Saints' Day prayer service on Halloween night. The election's in a few days, and Nucky's been so busy that he and Margaret haven't had to have contact in the wake of her leaving him. Seeing those names on the grave, though, brings back to her all of her feelings for the man, which originally went well beyond the simple pleasure in the nice things he could buy her. When this show started, there was a deep, almost needful connection between the two, perhaps based on a subconscious understanding of how much each had lost. So Margaret goes to Nucky, and as he tells her the long, sad story of how he lost his wife and child, that connection seems to come back ... until she tells him that, no, she's not going to be anything other than Mrs. Schroeder to him from now on.

Michael Kenneth Williams' jump from Omar on 'The Wire' to 'Boardwalk Empire'

Michael Kenneth Williams broke out as one of TV's most noteworthy and charismatic antiheroes with his portrayal of the shotgun-toting gangster Omar Little on HBO's "The Wire."

Now he's taken on another dark character -- ruthless businessman Chalky White on "Boardwalk Empire," just finishing its first season on HBO.

Williams loves embracing the dark side on screen, saying years of struggle have helped him connect with his fictional personas.

"The most challenging thing right now for me is showing that there's a difference between Omar and Chalky," he says. "There's no Omar in Chalky. They are driven by different things, different moral codes. Omar was driven by the hunt, while Chalky is a straight-up-and-down businessman."

For more on White,  check out this interview with him.

 
-- Greg Braxton  

Photo: Michael Kenneth Williams as Chalky White in "Boardwalk Empire" Credit: Craig Blankenhorn / HBO

'Boardwalk Empire' recap: Here come the payoffs

It's taken a while (some would say too long), but "Boardwalk Empire" finally sent its characters careening off into potential devastation with this, the next-to-last episode of its first season. Stuff that's been boiling away all season long came to a head, and major secrets were revealed, both to the characters and the audience.

The list of terrific scenes and setpieces is lengthy, and although there's one major casualty with the death of a character audiences have gotten to know quite well, it's a character few would have predicted would die, much less in the manner in which he did. All in all, "Paris Green" should make anyone who worried none of this was going to add up but stuck with the show anyway feel as though they're in good hands. It's a swift-moving, fascinating episode of television, one that reveals a picture the show's been constructing all along. It's not my favorite episode of the season (I tend to prefer the more character-heavy hours such as "Home"), but it's bound to keep me buzzing right up until the finale airs.

"Paris Green" is full of moments that have been a long time coming, some since the days of the pilot. In particular, we get to see Nucky make a break with both Margaret and Eli, two issues that have been hanging over the show for weeks now. If the first half of this first season was an old-fashioned, boy-meets-girl love story about two unlikely lovers who found each other after a series of unlikely circumstances (including the boy having the girl's husband killed), the second half has been about Margaret's growing disenchantment with the situation she finds herself in. In many ways, Margaret is the true face of where the world of "Boardwalk" is headed. She's the face of a country that gradually will take power from the networks of powerful men who control the levers of society and distribute it more evenly among more people. And yet she finds herself sharing the bed of one of those powerful men, even as she's acutely aware of where his power comes from.

'Boardwalk Empire' recap: The long shadow of Tony Soprano

At my other job, one of my recent projects has been working my way back through "The Sopranos," episode by episode. I'm early into the third season now, and I'm reminded of both why I enjoyed the series so much and why it became such a television legend. At the same time, "Boardwalk Empire" is approaching the end of its first season, and while the critical opinion of the series remains high, I get the sense that there are quite a few audience members who remain unconvinced, who compare the show to its most obvious ancestor and find it  wanting. To a degree, I agree with these people. "Boardwalk Empire" is not as good as "The Sopranos" was, not yet. But that's just the thing: FEW TV shows are as good as "The Sopranos" was, and ultimately, "Boardwalk Empire" and "The Sopranos" have very different aims, even if they're both about gangsters. The story of Tony and the gang was a collection of short stories that slowly cohered to tell a story about the end of something. "Boardwalk" is more novelistic in its approach, putting a bunch of pieces on the board, then seeing how they all come into conflict. Plus, it's about the beginning of something. A better comparison point, as I've said before, is probably "Deadwood" or "The Wire." ("Boardwalk" falls short of those two series, too, but, then, almost everything on TV does, so it's not a big deal.)

'Boardwalk Empire' recap: The song remains the same

The various institutions on "Boardwalk Empire" — from the government to Nucky's crime ring to the federal investigators looking into that crime ring — are often depicted in the series as machines. The parts of those machines may all be people, but the act of being in the machine, of fulfilling a certain role within it, means that just about anyone with a certain set of skills will work equally well as a cog in the system as anyone else with that set of skills. Sure, improvements can be made. Chalky was likely a better rum runner for Nucky's purposes than Doyle was, and no one can quite improve on Jimmy as Nucky's right-hand man. But the overwhelming sense of "Belle Femme" is that the more things change, the more things stay the same. You can promise the people change, and you can give it to them via a new face at a certain place in the organization, but as long as the same people control the purse strings, little is going to get done.

Of all of the things "Boardwalk Empire" has dabbled in thematically, it's this particular point that's going to have the most modern-day resonance for a lot of people. You can put new people in office, and you can change the people at the top, but on some level, the people with the money will always have the biggest voice. So long as the people further down in the organization are kept squabbling about the things that don't really matter, then the people further up can continue to consolidate their wealth and power. Of course, in the world of "Boardwalk Empire," we know that this consolidation created an economic model so unsustainable that it would utterly topple in just nine years' time. But that toppling may as well be on the moon for these characters. They see no end to their power, and why should they? They're in the process of getting much more of it.

'Boardwalk Empire' recap: Struggling against history

The pieces are drawing closer and closer together on "Boardwalk Empire," and now it's to the point where a casual moment in one storyline can have a ripple effect on another way over in another storyline. Consider: Nelson Van Alden has been intercepting the checks Jimmy sends home from Chicago to Angela, that she might care for herself and the child the two share. Since Angela's not getting that money, she's grown embittered toward Jimmy, and she's looking for a new way to make a little extra cash. (Jimmy's mother suggests becoming the period's equivalent of an Avon lady.) But if she were able to make that extra cash, then she just might run off to New York to live the Bohemian life with her lover, Mary. So when Van Alden drops that sum of cash in the mail to Angela, seemingly spurred by his wife's desire to have a corrective procedure that will allow her to have a child (which Van Alden is opposed to, since he believes God will give them a child when He's good and ready), it dangles, like an idea of what Angela COULD do.

'Boardwalk Empire' recap: Iconic characters and memorable images

After seven episodes, "Boardwalk Empire" has finally found its first iconic character. I don't mean to say that the other characters on the show are bad, not at all. I like the way that Nucky's intelligence causes him to overestimate his ability to keep the hounds at bay. I like how Jimmy constantly finds himself in over his head and then finds a way to claw out. I like Margaret's spirit and the way she seems unlikely to let Nucky treat her like dirt. I like the way the show gives little spotlight moments to all of its supporting players and monologues to most of its leads. This is a series that believes in the slow character build, but all of the people on it grow more fascinating by the week. I'm glad for all of that.

And yet, there have been few characters that are instantly recognizable as belonging to "Boardwalk Empire" and solely the world of that show, the way that Omar became the guy who broke out on "The Wire" or the way that Al Swearengen defined "Deadwood." Now, however, in Richard Harrow the show has found that guy. Played by Jack Huston with a gruff demeanor and a voice filled with a perpetual growl, Richard is a man who was injured so grievously in World War I that he covers half of his face with a mask painted to look like him, though the effect is to make him seem more unearthly than normal. There's a point where director Allen Coulter focuses on the mask half of Richard's face, rather than the half still present, and it's subtly creepy and subtly somehow WRONG.

HBO picks up 'Eastbound & Down' and 'Bored to Death' for a third season

Looks like Kenny [you know what word belongs here] Powers just scored another [you know what word belongs here] home run.

On Wednesday, HBO announced that it has renewed "Eastbound & Down" for a third season, along with the Jonathan Ames' private-detective series "Bored to Death." This completes the network's Sunday night lineup next season, because HBO already picked up "Boardwalk Empire."

While neither "Eastbound" nor "Bored" is a big hit -- both series' ratings hover below the 2-million mark -- both have devoted cult followings. Personally, we're looking forward to adding more one-liners to Kenny Powers Sound Clips, which we visit "on the reg." 

-- Melissa Maerz

Photo: Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) in "Eastbound & Down." Credit: Fred Norris / HBO

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