Entries from July 2008 ↓

Lots more Emmy coverage after the jump. Continue reading →

Neil Patrick Harris will appear on an episode of the next season of Sesame Street. He plays the Shoe Fairy – no word on when the episode will air, but the new season starts on August 11. You can see a clip, where Neil sings a song about shoes, here.

Neil will host the Pageant of the Masters benefit on August 23.

Neil is on the list of celebrity guests for IESB’s Comic Con party – the only way to get a ticket is to attend the Masters of the Web panel, where they’ll be giving away a very limited number of passes. The panel’s on Thursday at 10AM in room 32AB, for those of you who’ll be at Comic Con and want to try your luck. More information and the full guest list here.

As for the actual Comic Con schedule, NPH looks to be a very busy man: the cast of Dr. Horrible will be at the Joss Whedon panel (Friday, 1:30, Ballroom 20), and there’s a Harold and Kumar panel as well (Sunday, 12:00, Ballroom 20).

They’ll also be screening Dr. Horrible in its entirety – Friday night, 10:45, room 6B.

And finally, here’s some farmers market stalkerazzi fun for you.

They’ve finally put out a press release about the S3 DVDs, and they’ll be out on October 7, a week earlier than Amazon was reporting.

The special features:

• Series Retrospective
• Cast Favorites Featurette
• Unrated Gag Reel
• Behind The Scenes Of “We’re Not From Here”

• Additional Scenes – How It Really Happened
• Lily And Marshall’s Honeymoon Videos
• You Just Got Slapped Music Video
• Robin Sparkles “Sandcastles in the Sand” Music Video
• Ted Mosby Is A Jerk Alternate Audio Track – “The Bracket”

• Commentary By Show Creators Carter Bays And Craig Thomas, Director Pam Fryman And Editor Sue Federman – “The Platinum Rule”
• Commentary By Actors Josh Radnor And Sarah Chalke And Show Creators Carter Bays And Craig Thomas – “Ten Sessions”
• Commentary By Actor Neil Patrick Harris, Show Creators Carter Bays And Craig Thomas And Writer Joe Kelly – “The Bracket”
• Commentary By Actor Cobie Smulders, Show Creators Carter Bays And Craig Thomas, Director Pam Fryman And Writer Kourtney Kang – “Sandcastles In The Sand”
• Commentary By Actor Alyson Hannigan And Consulting Producer Jonathan Groff – “Everything Must Go”
• Commentary By Show Creators Carter Bays And Craig Thomas And Director Pam Fryman – “Miracles”

It’s a pity the cast couldn’t get together for commentaries, but it still looks great!

There’s still no final box art, but that will hopefully make an appearance sometime soon.

Source: TVShowsonDVD.com

Two this year – NPH for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy, and Steve Olson and Susan Eschelbach, who won last year, for Outstanding Art Direction for a Multi-Camera Series (The Yips, No Tomorrow, and Miracles).

As I’m sure you’re all aware, The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, while their placement in the schedule inevitably pairs them up, are two entirely different shows. They each have their own humor, style, and audience. So, naturally, CBS is promoting them online in two completely different ways.

In the last 24 hours, nine videos from The Big Bang Theory have been uploaded to the CBS YouTube account. In that same time, only two HIMYM videos have gone up.

I haven’t watched all of the TBBT videos, but for the most part, they look like they’re just scenes from the show, with little to no editing, chosen to showcase what it’s all about and attract interest from potential new viewers. I don’t watch TBBT, but I enjoyed what I saw of the clips and left with a good impression of the show, so overall: Effective.

Now, take a moment to think about how you’d promote HIMYM if it were up to you. Think about it: It does very well with critics, but not as well as you’d want it to in the ratings. It should appeal to the audiences that love Friends and The Office, but it’s got a few things working against it. It’s the youngest-skewing show on an old-skewing network – too far from Two and a Half Men to draw in that audience, but still branded a CBS comedy, which doesn’t look good to the 30 Rock crowd. Also keeping young viewers away – the laugh track. HIMYM might not be a traditional, live-studio-audience sitcom, but it looks like one from a distance, and traditional sitcoms aren’t the draw they were ten years ago.

So obviously, if you’re promoting the show on YouTube, you’re going after a younger crowd. You’re going to want to emphasize the HIMYM brand of humor, make it clear that it’s not just lame jokes and a laugh track. Let’s see what CBS, marketing geniuses that they are, came up with, shall we?

We’ve got a misguided attempt to make fun of the laugh track that only makes the show look worse:

And we’ve got what looks like a “hey, the kids like that Borat guy, and he can’t speak English, right?” effort:

Attention, CBS: If the fans of the show can’t stand to sit through the promotion, you’re doing it wrong.

Remember, the Emmy nominations will be announced by Neil Patrick Harris and Kristin Chenoweth of Pushing Daisies tomorrow morning at 5:40 AM Pacific/8:40 AM Eastern. The televised portion [seen on ABC] will include the acting and series nominations, and the Academy’s website will be publishing the full list of nominations at that time, with an announcement here as soon as I can put together a list of the HIMYM inclusions.

Last year, HIMYM won Outstanding Art Direction for a Multi-Camera Series [Steve Olson and Susan Mina Eschelbach for Aldrin Justice, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue], and also received nominations for NPH in Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy and Outstanding Multi-Camera Picture Editing for a Series [Susan Federman for Slap Bet].

In 2006, HIMYM won two Emmys – Outstanding Art Direction for a Multi-Camera Series [Steve Olson and Rickard C. Walker, for the pilot] and Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Series [Chris La Fountaine, for The Limo].

There are four – the musical’s title, Captain Hammer’s shirt, and shirts featuring Captain Hammer or Doctor Horrible.

According to the Dr. Horrible Twitter, they’re working on fixing the setup so it’s available internationally – in the meantime, you could try this.

[Update: They did fix the international issue, but then a while later the whole site crashed, which is where we are now. Those of you who can get it through iTunes might as well - two dollars for the first act or four for a season pass - cheap, and more reliable/higher quality than watching through the site!]

The first act of Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is now available at drhorrible.com, and it is FANTASTIC. The site also has iTunes store links – the first act is available for $1.99.

What do you think – did they get off to a good start?

Don’t forget that Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog – the first act of it, anyway – will go up on drhorrible.com tonight at midnight EST!

If you’re having trouble filling in the four hours until then, watch the teaser, read the comic, stalk its progress on Twitter, kill time by reading up on the musical at the official fansite, friend the official MySpace [or the unofficial one], or just refresh drhorrible.com obsessively until the video shows up.