April 2014 Archives - StayTuned Magazine

Oliver’s Twist: “The Daily Show” standout John Oliver gets his own gig on HBO

April 24, 2014 Lori Acken

Turns out The Daily Show’s fans weren’t the only ones thinking, “That guy should really have his own show” when the Comedy Central hit’s droll correspondent John Oliver aced his guest-hosting stint last summer, sitting in for Jon Stewart while Stewart directed his first film. Not long after, HBO offered the witty Brit his own weekly news-satire series. Airing late-night on Sundays, Last Week Tonight With John will feature the Emmy-winning writer and sometime standup comic (who also appears as Professor Ian Duncan on NBC’s Community) skewering the previous week’s news highlights and political water cooler moments in trademark Oliver […]

Years of Living Dangerously: Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron present a powerful look at climate change

April 10, 2014 Lori Acken

Though it’s produced by a veritable Hollywood power squad — Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Cameron and Jerry Weintraub — and stocked with celebrity correspondents, the real stars of Showtime’s stunning climate-change docuseries Years of Living Dangerously are the everyday souls from around the globe whose lives have been irreparably changed by the weather. While the verity of global warming has been a polarizing issue even before the Kyoto Protocol made greenhouse gases a matter of international policy, the show’s creators and advisers wanted their story to be one of the power of people, not politics. “Politics are covered, but the path […]

Food Network star-mentors seek out America’s Best Cook

April 4, 2014 Lori Acken

Few of us would argue that there’s anything quite as satisfying as a great home-cooked meal. Food Network hopes that watching talented home cooks hone their skills at the hands of famous mentors will come close. This month, the network introduces America’s Best Cook, a six-episode competition that features past and current Iron Chefs Alex Guarnaschelli (Team East), Michael Symon (Team North) and Cat Cora (Team South), plus The Great Food Truck Race’s Tyler Florence (Team West), coaching teams of amateur kitchen whizzes chosen from across America to see who can serve up the country’s best home cook. • RELATED: […]

Devious Maids Season 2: Marc Cherry, Susan Lucci and Judy Reyes talk the tidy success of Lifetime’s sensational soap

April 1, 2014 Lori Acken

Devious Maids is cleaning up for Lifetime. The deliciously soapy nighttime drama, created by Desperate Housewives scribe Marc Cherry and co-executive produced by Eva Longoria, defied ABC’s rejection and early concerns about racial stereotyping to become the network’s fastest-growing scripted series ever, thanks in large part to a devoted tribe of fans who call themselves the Devious Army. “We understood that we were treading precarious waters doing a show about maids with all Latinas,” says Judy Reyes, who plays controlling mom and maid Zoila Diaz. “But we all knew that it was a moment to seize, because it was something […]

TURN: AMC’s captivating new drama reveals America’s first spy ring

March 17, 2014 Lori Acken

At a January press conference, British actor Jamie Bell was asked what he learned about the American Revolution as a schoolboy — years before he signed on to play Culper Ring spy Abraham Woodhull in AMC’s new, fact-based drama TURN. Bell offered a wry smile and a brief response. “They taught us that we lost,” he said. Later, discussing the series in an airy Pasadena restaurant, Bell admits he finds the relevance of most period dramas questionable, but TURN — based on historian Alexander Rose’s 2006 book Washington’s Spies about a little-known group of childhood friends who risked everything to help George […]

Mad Men Season 7: Don Draper’s sendoff sells itself

March 11, 2014 Ryan Berenz

Mad Men Season 7: Mad Men’s seventh and final season will be split into two parts, with the first of seven episodes premiering on AMC Sunday, April 13, at 10pm ET and the last seven episodes premiering in spring 2015. Executive producer Scott Hornbacher talked about how the cast and crew are coming to grips with the show ending, as well as what he hopes the show’s legacy will be. Longtime fans of AMC’s Mad Men have waited out lengthy hiatuses before. With the show entering its final season, they’ll have to do it again, though with the knowledge that all […]

Ted Allen shares Chopped secrets and dishes on Chopped Tournament of Stars

March 8, 2014 Lori Acken

With an impressive 257 episodes of Food Network’s mainstay competition series Chopped under his belt, the show’s host Ted Allen says his gig is only getting better. “We have a team of 12 editors and they spend 37 days on each episode,” Allen says, “and the current run that they’re working on, the one that is going to be coming out soon — I feel like we just keep getting better at it. All of us. The judges. The camera operators. The directors. The music. And particularly the casting. Things are just cutting together really, really pretty!” Beginning Sunday, Allen […]