Jeff Pfeiffer, Author at StayTuned Magazine

Interview: Lucy Biggers of truTV’s Breaking Greenville

January 29, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

truTV’s new series Breaking Greenville, described by the network as a “comedic docu-soap,” brings a docuseries approach to the often-comical behind-the-camera workings of real-life local news stations in Greenville, Miss., in the delta, one of the smallest markets in America. The result is sometimes almost too crazy to be believed, at times resembling a situation from the Anchorman movies, but, if you’re familiar with local news, some of the personalities and activities chronicled in the series may not be surprising. No matter how large or small the market in which you watch your news is, you’ll probably recognize some of the characters, from the way-too-chipper morning […]

Empire’s Grace Gealey: “More deep episodes coming up for Anika”

January 28, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

FOX’s midseason series Empire has become a fast hit — it has continued rising in its ratings over its first three weeks, and after only two episodes it was renewed for a second season. The hip-hop drama has quickly developed a fan base, with people tweeting about it excitedly during its airing. Grace Gealey, who plays Anika Calhoun, head of Empire Entertainment A&R and the love interest of Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard), is also excited about the success of the show. In Gealey’s first network TV role, her character had a breakout episode on Jan. 28, and just ahead of that, […]

Key & Peele deliver Pro Edition of East/West Bowl

January 28, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

Ahead of their Super Bowl special airing Jan. 30 at 10pm ET/PT on Comedy Central, Key and Peele have released a Pro Edition of their popular East/West Bowl sketch, which traditionally has fun at the expense of the unusual names among some college football players. This time, Key and Peele portray a variety of fictional pro players with hilarious names, mannerisms and ways of speaking. Here, though, there are even a couple of real-life NFLers thrown into the mix, whose names were apparently too good to leave out, including Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, D’Brickashaw Ferguson and Aaron Rodgers (?). (Rodgers introduces […]

Bob Fisher on Sirens Season 2

January 27, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

In September, I, along with a few other writers, had the chance to visit the Chicago set of USA Network’s hit comedy series Sirens, which follows the professional and personal lives of three EMTs in the Windy City. (The set is not far from where Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. are shot, and during chats with cast members of Sirens, they said sometimes the various casts get together for softball games and other fun.) Before watching the filming of a scene, we toured the set, which included a newly built hospital set for the second season (visits to the hospital […]

Katia Winter says Sleepy Hollow Season 2 has “been a little manic”

January 26, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

Some Sleepy Hollow fans have, to a degree, been disappointed by the direction Season 2 has been going, especially regarding the relationship between Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) and his wife, Katrina (Katia Winter), with some fans preferring to see something happen between Ichabod and his modern-day partner Abbie (Nichole Beharie) rather than wait for Ichabod to help Katrina get acclimated to the 21st century, which has come complete with courting each other anew via modern dating rituals. Don’t worry, fans; Katia Winter has heard your concerns and, to some extent, shares them, but thinks it all should work out by season’s end. “It’s […]

Rokerthon is back, with a special Blizzard 2015 edition

January 26, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

The Northeast is gearing up for what sounds like it may be a truly epic snowstorm (possibly among the largest in New York City history, as an example of its potential). Needless to say, media outlets are practically drooling over the idea of covering this latest “snowpocalypse” (The Weather Channel has named the winter storm Juno, even though few other news outlets use its naming conventions). NBC News is one of the outlets gearing up for cross-plaform coverage, including a digital redux of last year’s popular “Rokerthon,” which featured Al Roker setting a Guinness World Record for the longest uninterrupted […]

2015 SAG Awards winners

January 26, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) announced its awards last night in a ceremony televised on TNT and TBS. Here are the titles and people who took home honors at the 21st Annual SAG Awards: THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURE CATEGORIES Outstanding Performance By a Cast in a Motion Picture Birdman Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Julianne Moore as Alice Howland in Still Alice Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role J.K. Simmons as Fletcher in […]

Ben Barnes: Sons of Liberty a “rough-and-tumble” version of early American history

January 25, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

The name Sam Adams may be familiar to most Americans nowadays as the name of a beer, but he was, of course, in real life one of the patriots instrumental in leading the American Revolution. He is one of the main characters followed in Sons of Liberty, the new scripted miniseries on History about the years leading up to that monumental event. The three-night, six-hour Sons of Liberty (named after the moniker the group of young freedom fighters gave themselves) chronicles the years 1765-1775. While the Revolution itself has been covered in many a film and TV series, these earlier […]

“Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real” – an early Discovery natural history “mockumentary” – re-airs on Discovery Family Channel

January 23, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

Several years before Discovery networks came under fire for their “mockumentaries” about mermaids, megalodon sharks and man-eating anacondas — specials that were not explicitly clear at the outset that they were, in fact, fantasies — Animal Planet aired a similar type of program with 2005’s Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real, probably the first of Discovery Communications’ foray into less-factual animal programming. That two-hour program will be re-airing Jan. 25 at 9pm ET on the new Discovery Family Channel, and you can see how it differs from its modern counterparts; namely, it doesn’t try to deceive viewers into thinking it’s actually a true […]

Miss Universe 2014 — Date, time, channels

January 22, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

What: Miss Universe 2014 (although airing in 2015, it’s considered the 2014 installment of the event) When and Where: In the United States, the Miss Universe 2014 pageant, the 63rd annual ceremony, will air Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015, from 8pm-11pm ET on NBC and Telemundo. Telemundo will have exclusive Spanish-language coverage, and will begin its coverage with a pre-show at 7pm ET. UPDATE 1/26/15: WHO WON MISS UNIVERSE 2014? Miss Colombia Paulina Vega was named Miss Universe. Miss USA Nia Sanchez was first runner-up. About: One of the world’s top beauty pageants features contestants from more than 80 countries, judged in […]