Production News: Cougar Town stops over ‘family matter’

Inside the production lines of TV: according to sources inside the show and a report from Access Hollywood, a “private family matter” according to Courteney Cox has stopped production on the set of  “Cougar Town,” a new show that has been a minor hit for ABC, drawing 7.9M viewers for its show last week.

“We can confirm production on ‘Cougar Town‘ has been temporarily shut down in order for Courteney to deal with a private family matter,” stated a rep on the record to AH.

Our take: We hope she can square this issue away and return to complete the show quite soon, but at the same time, you have a contract, studios have a lot of money and deadlines at stake, and people at regular jobs normally can’t just leave because of ‘family issues’. They have to stay and complete their work, then go home and deal with the issues in their lives. Just another perspective on things.

Meet the Cash: Meet the Browns to go syndicated

Tyler Perry’s sitcom ‘Meet the Browns‘ is on its way to broadcast television, according to several inside sources. After only 15 months on the air? Yes, indeed.

The syndication company Debmar-Mercury’s deal puts the sitcom in more than 70% of the country for a mid-September debut on major station groups, including Fox, Tribune, CBS and Cox, based on buzz from the Hollywood Reporter.

The series is #1 on TBS among adults under age 49, so its natural that bigger networks want to grab this valuable viewing market.

We actually think House of Payne is the stronger show in terms of writing and characters (as far as characters get with Perry involved anyway) but hey, we’re rooting for its success all the same.

DeNiro TV Producer?: Tribeca Productions and CBS Studios hook up

Robert De Niro’s long-tenured production company, Tribeca Productions, has signed a two-year deal with CBS Television Studios, Variety is now reporting. He will produce up to 3 TV shows for various networks, including CBS, over the next few years.

The Oscar winner is currently working on 3 New York-based (location not a shock, it’s his native home) TV projects for CBS and its sister networks: Securing the City, a 1-hour drama about NYPD and its counterterrorism force; Felony Review, with young assistant district attorneys in New York and their cases and tribulations; and a unique Spike Lee and Robert De Niro produced Showtime drama as yet unnamed.

It seems the popular actor has pretty much moved to the other side of the camera for the most part.

Uproar: Suicide groups upset about ‘The Office’ and hangman scene

Some suicide prevention groups are apparently quite unhappy with a scene in “The Office” where Steve Carell’s character scares young children by putting himself in a hangman’s noose as a Halloween prank. NBC apparently isn’t laughing at all about the uproar.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention should never use suicide as a joke in any way, and we (sorta) agree with them. I mean, you have to be able to laugh at many things, but suicide is something should be treated sensitively for many reasons, let alone you never know what state the viewer watching it is in.

Robert Gebbia, the foundation’s executive director was quoted as saying: “We try not to be zealots about this…But this one … kind of crossed the line.”

NBC had no direct comment on the matter, as was expected.

More McFarlane: Fox Orders More ‘American Dad’

Seth MacFarlane is now one of the richest writers/producers in history, after reaching a $100M dollar deal with Fox a few months back to stay and produce shows for them through 2012, and that includes ‘American Dad‘, which was just renewed for a 6th season today.

The deal includes a sitcom to be produced by MacFarlane that is still in the planning stages, and Family Guy and The Cleveland Show to run through 2012 as well.

It appears this lineup will dominate Fox’s Sunday night programming for some time to come, and MacFarlane was quoted as saying after the $100M deal: “I get a lot of pleasure out of making shows. It’s a bonus to be getting paid well for it, and it’s a double bonus to be getting paid exorbitantly for it.” We couldn’t have said it better.

Second Chance: Southland and TNT in talks to migrate show

Remember Southland, the searing cop drama plagued by low ratings and celebrated by critics that was cancelled by NBC before the second season even aired? Well, it may soon be getting a second shot, courtesy of TNT, a network that loves their cop dramas.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a deal is ” close to being reached”, based on inside info from various sources.  Talk began quickly after NBC unexpectedly canned the show after completing 6 episodes of the new season. Hopefully, this rookie gets a chance in the limelight with a network less gun-shy about canning a promising show.

TNT, Warner Bros. and John Wells Productions have refused to comment regarding the talks, but a deal is “imminent” according to the talk through the grapevine.

Older and The Disrespected: Eric Braeden to leave soap over pay dispute

Victor Newman is saying goodbye to Genoa City, and this time its for good, apparently. And the circumstances and the way its been handled seem quite sad, indeed.

Eric Braeden has played the role of Newman on The Young and the Restless since 1980 (that’s almost 30 years, folks), has stated to Entertainment Weekly that he has terminated talks to stay on the show.

Braeden left the show in September over a contract tussle with production company Sony, who wanted him to take a fairly large pay cut. He elected to “strike” instead.

The 68-year-old was making a seven-figure salary, finally came back to the table and agreed to a “fairly substantial” pay cut, and that Sony rejected the offer.

Eric is quoted in EW: “We reached an impasse in the negotiations. I have shown flexibility, they have shown none … That’s a sign of utter disrespect. I will not negotiate with people who remain aloof and arrogant about the whole thing. Not after 30 years, I won’t do that.” And we don’t blame him, when you get down to it. “It’s slowly sinking in that I’m leaving. It’s sad.”

We’re watching the slow death of soap operas as we know them, we believe, and this is just one more piece of evidence.

Hawaii Five-O Back on TV?

Remember “Book ‘em Dano…murder one”? Well, if you’re older you’ll remember the famous line and the cop show from the 60′s and 70′s that featured Jack Lord as the tough cop in Hawaii.

Apparently, according to Yahoo! TV and Variety, it’s coming back again. Here’s the scoop:

“Hawaii Five-O” is reportedly heading back to TV – thanks to the writers behind “Star Trek” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the screenwriters of the two summer hits, will be rebooting the classic cop drama for CBS along with “CSI: NY” producer Peter Lenkov, Variety reported.

The original show, which ran from 1968-1980, was filmed on location in Hawaii, where the new version is expected to return.

“Hawaii Five-O” starred Jack Lord and Danny Williams as a pair of hardened cops serving in the Hawaiian State Police. There’s no word yet on who would take on their roles in the reboot.

Swine Flu and Bones: Scare Turns Out To Be False Alarm

It appeared that Fox series Bones was going to be shut down after star “David Boreanaz came down with a flu that was first believed to be of the swine variety, Access Hollywood has confirmed”, according to an article.

Creator Hart Hanson tweeted that they suspected swine flu, then retracted the diagnosis, as it was shown the star did not have swine flu. Good thing; it would have shut down production for at least a week or two.

It just shows how deeply this illness has affected the public consciousness, and how scared people are of the flu strain. It’s now reported that Boreanaz will return to the set tomorrow, and shooting will go on as normal. Fans can breathe a sigh of relief, as episode schedules will not be affected.

Swayze in Audiobook: “I knew I had received a death sentence.”

In a very searing and revealing audiobook of his memoirs releasing soon, where he narrates along with his wife, he basically admits he knew he was dead when he heard “pancreatic cancer”.

He also admitted being very angry and bitter after hearing the diagnosis, realizing his time was short. “Why me?” he asked many times, feeling like he “wasn’t ready to go yet”.

The Dirty Dancing star died a few weeks ago now after a year long battle with cancer. He completed the A&E series The Beast as his last hurrah, often struggling to finish scenes and being in a lot of pain according to the producers.

More from the book:

“Now, a lot of things go through your head when you get a death sentence handed to you, starting with: ‘Why me?’ It’s hard not to sink into bitterness … For me, that initial shock quickly turned into self-criticism and blame.”

The audiobook comes out Tuesday, and it sounds like a pretty intense read/listen. Rest in peace, Patrick.

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