EXCLUSIVE: What did series creator Stephen J. Cannell think of David Shore's pilot script for NBC's now-dead "Rockford Files" reboot?

http://www.deadline.com/2010/05/primetime-pilot-panic-rockford-files-is-now-dead-at-nbc/

Those pilot-panicking news breakers over at the fantastic Deadline.com are now reporting that NBC's Rockford Files reboot is kaput ... though "a redevelopment of the concept is still a possibility," states TV editor Nellie Andreeva.

Apparently, the finished cut lacked, um, re-imagination. Which is surprising, given the creative forces behind the show (House creator David Shore and The Office's Steve Carell). Even Rockford co-creator Stephen J. Cannell told me a few weeks ago for a Los Angeles Times story that he thought Shore's pilot script had the "panache" of the original. "A lot of people who'll be tuning in ... are not going to have bulletproof memories of what Rockford was all those years ago," Cannell told me in unpublished portions of his interview. "They'll be able to look at it and evaluate it as its own entity."

Apparently, audiences won't get that chance--unless NBC decides to retool the pilot for midseason or later.

According to New York magazine's Vulture column, "two people familiar with the situation said Rockford turned out to be more rehash than reinvention." The article quotes anonymous sources pointing the finger at pilot director and seasoned TV pro Michael Watkins. The column, indirectly quoting insider sources, reports that Watkins "severely weakened a solid script with lackluster, even listless direction." The story quotes one unnamed source as saying, "The pilot looks like it was shot in the seventies."

Ironically, Cannell told me in March that Shore's script was "funny," "fresh" and an "interesting play" on the original. While acknowledging the reboot's writer as a Rockford fan, Cannell added—and stressed this as a plus for the re-imagined pilot—"David Shore didn't have the experience of making (the show) in the seventies."

In his interview with me, Cannell also said he knew Shore and company, however inventive, inspired and spot-on with their script and casting, had their work cut out for them. "It's very difficult when you start off and are trying to make a classic over," Cannell told me in an unpublished portion of his interview. "Not that Rockford is I Love Lucy, but how would you like to try to make that one over again? You're really climbing a high mountain. Then you have the problem of having it on the video shelf right next to the original."

From my L.A. Times piece: "They couldn't have better people doing this," said a well-wishing Cannell. "But it's gonna be so hard to take out what basically is 50% of the equation -- which is Jim (Garner)."
 
He continued in his interview with me: "And that's casting no aspersions on the actor they've hired." Mulroney and Shore "are exquisite," he added. "But I guess if you're looking for it to be what it was, it's gonna be pretty hard to do. But if you're looking for it to be a really fun, interesting, funny show that can fill a dead hour on NBC, then that's another thing altogether. I think it can easily hit that goal."

Well, maybe not till 2011.

"V" renewed ... as predicted

ABC adds more pickups - Entertainment News, TV News, Media - Variety

As I predicted in this morning's wee hours, ABC is giving V a second season, despite the reboot's struggles in the ratings. But without a Lost lead-in next season, one wonders what network workhorse will anchor the lizards' mother ship ...

My suggestion: Tom Bergeron narrating an hour of Betty White re-enacting the best of Lost through interpretive dance.

Which TV reboots will be picked up, renewed, retooled or killed?

Vulture Exclusive: Details on What Went Wrong with NBC's Rockford Files Reboot -- Vulture

It looks like NBC's re-imagined Rockford Files pilot will be put on hold and revamped—or killed altogether. I'm betting the former, given NBC's nearly year-long investment in the project and the fact that CBS's Hawaii Five-0 and CW's Nikita appear to be a go for fall. (Does the Peacock want to be the only network that failed to produce a potentially winning retro remake—especially with its legacy of Bionic Woman and Knight Rider-style reboot crash-and-burns?)

Perhaps we'll see Rockford and ABC's Charlie's Angels redo midseason. I'm also betting ABC holds on to V for another batch of "pod" episodes this fall—at least till it sees how Five-O and (to a lesser extent) Nikita perform. Hot "private eye/spy" remakes and the continuing decline of highly serialized network dramas could spell the end of V and the return of T&A, er, Charlie's Angels.

I'd love to see a re-envisioned Rockford move forward. Dermot Mulroney, as I wrote in my recent LA Times piece, has big gumshoes to fill in replacing Jim Garner. But the 40ish film actor is a crooked-grinned charmer and—with the proper script and direction—seems up to the challenge of reinventing the quirky-cool Rockford.

If all else fails, NBC could give Mulroney's Rockford a crazy-hot love interest. Betty White in da house!

Who's been managing Charlie's Angels's money???

If he were alive today, Angel- and luxury-loving Charlie Townsend would not be a happy man.

Charlie's Angels star Kate Jackson, claiming she's in "financial ruin," is suing her former financial advisor for $3 million. The advisor: Farrah Fawcett's former business manager, Richard B. Francis.

Francis, who's also Ryan O'Neal's business manager and a trustee of Fawcett's estate, has his hands full these days. He's already engaged in dueling lawsuits with Farrah's Story documentary exec producer Craig Nevius, who--as Jackson claims happened to herself--was cut out of Fawcett's life in the weeks (in Nevius's case, months) leading up to her tragic death from anal cancer on June 25, 2009.

Last March, Nevius--sued by Fawcett's estate in January for allegedly embezzling "hundreds of thousands of dollars" from her production company--charged in court filings that Francis and Fawcett friend Alana Stewart are using the cancer research charity The Farrah Fawcett Foundation "to divert Ms. Fawcett’s assets away from other rightful beneficiaries," including the late actress's 92-year-old father, James.

In her suit filed this week, Jackson claims Francis knew about her "extremely close relationship" with Fawcett and capitalized on that connection to land Jackson as a client. The brunette Angel alleges Francis estimated she was worth about $5.4 million, and advised that she could live off at least $300,000 annually from her accounts' interest.

Jackson claims she learned her true financial worth--per her suit, approximately $3 million--when, under alleged pressure from Francis, she bought a house for $2,0011,000 in Santa Monica's "Golden Strip" in 2008. According to TMZ, Jackson's suit claims she knew she couldn't afford the house, but Francis--who she alleges knew she was "grossly overpaying" for the home--"drained her savings account in order to pay for it anyway."

Reports TMZ, "Francis says he's been in the business for 50 years and has an impeccable record with several celebrity clients" The site quotes Francis as saying, "This case will end at the deposition stage. It will never go to court."

But if published in the media, these depositions--and those of Francis's other Fawcett-related suits--could set the stage for a damning trial in the court of public opinion.


Last February, Jackson told Radar Online she questioned an April 2009 document seemingly signed by Fawcett revoking control of Farrah's Story from Nevius and giving it instead to Fawcett's longtime lover O'Neal. Nevius sued O'Neal, Francis and Farrah's Story co-producer Alana Stewart last summer, accusing them of conspiring to seize control of the documentary and interfering with his contract with Fawcett to oversee it.


"Farrah had such beautiful penmanship," Jackson told Radar Online, who reported TV's "smart Angel" had seen the document, crucial evidence in Nevius's case. "It caused me to become very sad and upset, when I saw that signed document, because I believed that she was not awake enough, because of the pain medication she required. Frankly, to me, that document didn't look like she could have a clue what she was signing."


In an exclusive interview with Retroality.TV last fall, Nevius said that around early April 2009, Francis, O'Neal and Stewart "isolated" Fawcett from him. And "Ryan and Alana took steps to take over the documentary through his business manager [Francis] and Farrah’s and my former attorneys who filed our company’s Articles of Organization with the state. Suddenly, Ryan and his business manager claimed to have Farrah’s 'Power of Attorney'—although they refused to show it to me."


As of last September, "I haven’t seen any document entitled 'Power of Attorney,'" Nevius told us.  "Although I have seen other documents which they claim negate the operating agreement that Farrah and I signed when we formed Sweetened By Risk LLC. They claim the other documents also void the rights Farrah invested with me on her behalf and on our company’s behalf should health events interfere with her ability to continue the work. These new documents were signed with a scrawled, scrunched signature that they claim is Farrah’s."


In January, Fawcett's estate sued Nevius, accusing him of embezzling from Sweetened by Risk LLC (SBR), botching an initial edit of her NBC documentary and selling out Fawcett by releasing data and footage without her consent. The suit was filed by Francis, acting as an estate trustee, and by SBR.


In a statement released to the media, Nevius responded, "These accusations are nothing more than a fabricated press release disguised as a lawsuit. As much as I would like to answer the allegations and disprove them right here and right now in the court of public opinion, I will wait to do so in a court of law." 


Jackson defended Nevius in an AP report about the estate's lawsuit. "He had an unflagging devotion to Farrah in every way and he worked with her to help her achieve her vision, not his vision and not anybody else's vision," Jackson said.


Jackson's suit, while on the surface unrelated to the Nevius-O'Neal/Francis litigation, could bring to light revealing information about Francis's dealings with Fawcett and O'Neal, and the couple's dealings with each other. Fawcett appointed Francis a trustee to her estate in 2007. Curiously, however, she did not name O'Neal--whom she never married--in her will as she did their son, Redmond.

"I've read Mr. Nevius' response to our complaint which I think contains spurious and outrageous allegations,” Howard Weitzman, an attorney for the estate, Francis, O'Neal and Stewart, told the AP.


Responded Nevius to Tabloid Baby: "Mr. Weitzman thinks my lawsuit contains 'spurious and outrageous allegations?' You mean, he doesn't know? It doesn't sound like he has unwavering confidence in his clients. But he is right about one thing: the truth will come out during litigation. And it will reveal that Ryan O'Neal is a monster, Alana Stewart is soulless and Richard Francis acts like a thug." 


Perhaps Jaclyn Smith, with her far-from-Hollywood, good-old-reliable K-Mart contract, is the truly "smart one."

I saw this in my browser's window and just couldn't resist it

The next campaign for 'SNL' host: Carol Burnett – The Marquee Blog - CNN.com Blogs

Now that Betty White has kicked some serious Nielsen and comedy ass hosting SNL, maybe TV execs are realizing that retro greats are still relevant ratings-getters. Already a Facebook campaign is well underway to encourage NBC and Lorne Michaels to ask TV's Queen of Sketch Comedy, Carol Burnett, to host SNL next season.

I for one would be so glad to have this time together with Miss Burnett. And this time, let's get Cheri Oteri and Jan Hooks back, too!