Interview: Psych creator Steve Franks on the season four finale, next season, and putting the show together

Posted by Paul Little | Wednesday, March 10, 2010 @ 6:47am

A little over a week ago, I posted some Psych scoop on the heels of speaking with Steve Franks, the show's creator, writer, and executive producer. Well, that interview with Mr. Franks actually lasted nearly 40 minutes (apparently we were both really excited to talk about the show!), and spanned an array of topics including tonight's season finale (which airs on USA at 10/9c), what kind of things to expect next season, the writing process for the show, how the idea for Psych came about in the first place, and even the Olympics.

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Academy Awards Coverage: The Hurt Locker takes down the mighty Avatar; our own Douglas Maynard asks the tough questions

Posted by Paul Little | Sunday, March 7, 2010 @ 9:03pm

As the Academy Awards draw to a close, I'm reminded of something said at Friday's press conference in Hollywood with Oscar co-producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic and Academy president Tom Sherak. I can't recall which one of the three said it, but we were told that there would be more excitement during the first hour of this year's Academy Awards telecast than ever before. Things would be fast-paced, you see, and this ceremony would be more appealing to younger viewers than ever before. Looking back on that first hour, and the show as a whole, I'm not quite sure what they were talking about.

Sure, the opening musical number featuring Neil Patrick Harris was phenomenal (should he host next year?); the banter between hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin has been mostly really funny (who knew Meryl Streep had such a bit Hitler memorabilia collection?!); the John Hughes tribute was nice to see; Ben Stiller in Avatar make-up (when Avatar wasn't even nominated in that category!) was one of the funniest moments of the night; and there were of course some memorable acceptance speeches. But the most exciting first hour ever? Hardly. And a fast-paced extravaganza? Well, the show ran long once again.

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The Golden Monkey Awards: Our Best in Film for 2009

Posted by Paul Little | Sunday, March 7, 2010 @ 3:20am

Tonight the film world came together to celebrate the best in motion pictures with the 82nd Academy Awards. We love the Oscars here at ShowbizMonkeys.com -- the movie stars, the spectacle, the whole thing -- but we also like picking our own favourites in movies. Since this site began under our old name in 2001, we've been choosing our own top movies of the year. But beginning this year, we're running things more like the major awards shows themselves -- minus the stars and the spectacle, of course!

So, we present to you the Golden Monkey Motion Picture Achievement Awards, honouring what we believe to be the best in film for 2009. There are 10 categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Animated Film, Best Documentary, Best Original Song, and of course, Best Picture. Our staff, which stretches across North America, submitted their choices for their favourites in each category, and from those selections, we put together our nominees. Then we put our nominees to a vote, and came up with these winners -- our collective favourites from the last year.

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Canadian comedy Less Than Kind returns tonight for a second season on a new network

Posted by Paul Little | Friday, February 19, 2010 @ 6:21am

From the opening strums of the guitar on The Weakerthan's "One Great City", the entire feel of Less Than Kind is set. The characters aren't really pleasant, happy people. They're like most Winnipeggers (the setting for the show and the subject of its theme song): they complain, they're generally miserable, and they refuse to admit how good they have it. But they're also sarcastic and sardonic and oh so fun to watch!

The darkly humourous Canadian sitcom returns tonight (February 19th) at 8:30pm ET/7:30pm CT on HBO Canada after airing on CityTV for its first season. At its core, it's a classic story of a nerdy kid (Sheldon Blecher, played by Jesse Camacho) having to not only deal with problems at school, but plenty more at home. However, these aren't your usual, garden-variety sitcom problems. Sheldon's father Sam is one extra order of bacon away from a heart attack, and has anger issues to boot; his mom is an emotional mess who also happens to be a bit of a secret pyromaniac; his older brother is a self-absorbed actor back in town (and sharing his room!) after a bit of success preceded a lot of failure; and he's also incredibly smart, sweet, and overweight -- all traits that make him less than popular at school. Being set in Winnipeg only adds to the overall bleakness of Sheldon's situation.

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Lost: The Substitute

Posted by David Robertson | Tuesday, February 16, 2010 @ 11:32pm

Now we're getting somewhere. And it is somewhat fitting that Locke, whoever he is, is the one who stars in the episode where we finally see progress in this, the final season. As much as I didn't mind last week's episode, in hindsight we didn't really get anywhere. Perhaps inadvertently making up for this, tonight's episode was pretty great. Lots of that Lost intrigue, methinks.

The Substitute was a cool title, too, because it had more than one meaning. Locke is an actual substitute, eventually, in one flash. In the other, the Man in Black is kind of a substitute for Locke (who is dead), as he is using Locke's body. And we'd all miss Locke, wouldn't we? I would. He is the soul of the island to me.

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The Melodic Monkey Awards: Our Top Music of 2009

Posted by Paul Little | Sunday, January 31, 2010 @ 11:22pm

Tonight, the music world celebrated the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, which we covered on our site. But as we did last year, we're pairing up our annual awards for the best in music along with the industry's awards. Last year, we just gave you a list of our favourite albums, but from this year onward, we're breaking things down into categories, complete with our nominees and winners, much like the awards shows themselves.

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Interview: Canadian folk duo Dala (Sheila Carabine & Amanda Walther)

Posted by Paul Little | Thursday, January 21, 2010 @ 1:10pm

Dala had quite the year in 2009! Besides playing the Winnipeg Folk Festival (where ShowbizMonkeys.com got the chance to talk with them), they played seemingly ever other folk and bluegrass festival in Canada and the United States last year, steadily growing their fanbase on the way. But while live shows are certainly Dala's bread and butter -- besides the amazingly tight harmonies and solid musicianship, you also get the bonus of seeing a hilarious bantering comedy act in between songs -- the year also garnered them attention for their recorded music.

Dala's song "Horses", off of 2009's Everyone is Someone, was named the #7 song of the year by NPR's "Folk Alley", appearing on the list alongside music legends Levon Helm of The Band and Elvis Costello. They were also acknowledged back home in Canada, receiving Canadian Folk Music Award nominations for "Vocal Group of the Year" and "Producer of the Year". And just last week, their song "Levi Blues" was nominated in the "Mainstream AC" category for this year's Canadian Radio Music Awards.

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Rants & Raves: The New Bachelor

Posted by Ramya Velmurugiah | Tuesday, January 12, 2010 @ 12:13pm

The Bachelor has always been synonymous with cheese but the latest episode took it to a whole new level.

Rozlyn drama aside, Jake's first one-on-one date was essentially a case of Disney Presents the Bachelor: the classic tale of Ali, the girl who is afraid to fly, and her forbidden, exploited romance with the dashing, but boring Jake – the pilot who, in his own words, “can fly anything”.

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Top Ten Films of the Decade

Posted by Elizabeth Hughes Belzil | Tuesday, January 12, 2010 @ 5:52am

Deciding on only ten favorite films over the course of ten years is an arduous task. While my selection criteria relied on a variety of factors, in the end, my ultimate guide was personal preference. Undoubtedly, many will feel certain films were unfairly left out, but there truly is no objective way to make a list of this nature. Please feel free to comment and share your opinions regarding the best films of the decade.

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The 2009 Late Night Television Awards

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, January 4, 2010 @ 8:00pm

Aren't you excited? A totally trivial list of the top 3 shows/hosts in 5 different categories, picking from a genre of no more than a dozen total shows. So while 2009 was the year that talk shows seemed to dominate the airwaves (Really? 3.5 hours of talk every night on NBC? Really!?), it's still a pretty limited game, especially in late night.

Since I do watch almost every night of almost every show on late night television, it seems, I like to think I'm a bit of an authority on the work of comedic talk shows. So who better to come up with a list (that holds little clout) of what was the best of the decade's final year?

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