Jay Blumenfield Movies
- 2008
Hosted by Nick Lachey, this competitive reality series takes young, hopeful singers, dancers, and actors from all over the country and provides them with a series of increasingly difficult challenges, putting their performing chops to the test to see which has what it takes to win the ultimate prize: the starring role in a music video that will be featured during the closing credits of High School Musical 3: Senior Year, a talent hold agreement with ABC, and a recording contract with Walt Disney Records for two singles. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nick Lachey
- 2006
- Add Dane Cook's Tourgasm [TV Series] to QueueAdd Dane Cook's Tourgasm [TV Series] to top of Queue
As indicated by its title, this weekly, half-hour documentary series was the handiwork of standup comedian Dane Cook, whose bestselling CD albums poked merciless and highly profane fun at contemporary youth culture. In Tourgasm, Cook joined three young aspiring comics on a 30-day bus tour of America, performing 20 club dates along the way. Cook's official designation was "The Leader"; the others included Robert Kelly, "The Instigator"; Gary Gulman, "The Conflicted"; and Jay Davis, "The Newbie." In between performing to packed houses, the four funmakers were seen bickering, badgering, jockeying for position, and generally behaving in as obnoxious a manner as possible (some found the quartet's offstage shenanigans to be funnier than their on-stage performances). Though supposedly off-the-cuff and improvised, much of what occurred on the series was clearly cannibalized from star Cook's familiar material -- and not surprisingly, he came off as the funniest of the batch. Dane Cook's Tourgasm got under way via the HBO cable network on June 11, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dane Cook
- 2006
Described by critics as a reality-show variation on Desperate Housewives, the weekly, hour-long CBS offering Tuesday Night Book Club also bore similarities to the unscripted Bravo series The Real Housewives of Orange County. Filmed in an upscale suburb, of Scottsdale, AZ, Tuesday Night Book Club focused on a group of women, mostly housewives, who gathered for a weekly literary meeting which generally devolved into a round-robin discussion of their sex problems. The main players were identified only by first name and character description: thus, the woman named Cris was billed as "The Loyal Wife," while Jamie was "The Conflicted Wife," Jenn "The Trophy Wife," Kirin "The Doctor's Wife," Sara "The Party Girl," Lynn "The Newlywed," and Tina "The Divorced Mom." In addition to the ladies' book-club discourses, the series allowed the women time to vent their woes in direct-to-camera interviews, and occasionally went "backstage," as it were, to show certain ladies in their own homes with own significant others. The preponderance of severe crises and bitter arguments, coupled with the sonorous offscreen narration and ominous musical stings, suggested that perhaps the series was not as "spontaneous" and unrehearsed as the producers claimed. Debuting June 13, 2006, Tuesday Night Book Club was doled out in "chapters" rather than episodes; only two of the four completed "chapters" were seen before the series was canceled. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
