Brian Howard
Brian Howard covers news for the Northern Westchester bureau of The Journal News and LoHud.com.
Brian also covers a mobile journalism beat focusing on the Town of Yorktown that can be found at lohud.com/yorktown and contributes to Remote Access -- The T.V. Blog at remote.lohudblogs.com.
E-mail Brian Howard at bjhoward@lohud.com
Entries written by Brian Howard
- July
- 2
If there are bigger fans around the Office fandom than the one who goes by the handle lemoñadé, I haven't come across them.
Jim Halpert and lemoñadé
I consider myself a pretty die-hard Dunder Mifflin obsessive myself, but even I'll get schooled from time to time by fellow fans with quicker recall of key lines or scenes [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on July 2nd, 2008 | 1 Comment »
- July
- 1
I first posted news in February that an Arrested Development movie was in the offing. (Yikes, I'm giddy just typing those words.)
Well, a few months later the idea is taking shape. The Times confirmed the news once again last week in a profile interview with Jason Bateman.
A big-screen version of Arrested Development is planned for [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on July 1st, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- July
- 1
So my co-worker tells me yesterday that his brother-in-law's mother-in-law is the actress who plays Bubbie on Weeds.
I guess I should say she's the actress who played Bubbie, because after last night I'm guessing she's looking for acting work. Still, a pretty neat little connection to what is becoming an ever more darkly humorous take [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on July 1st, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 30
I'll be back. And I am back. For goooooood.
So said Michal Scott, in a bad Kevin Nealon-as-Schwarzenegger accent, of his return to Scranton a while back.
And so said Steve Carell, whose managerial captaincy of the good ship Office is anything but nebulose.
If you read Ricky Gervais's movie blog (for This Side of The Truth, featuring [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 30th, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 24
Yeah, I'm late. I promised my Weeds recap would go up last night, but I was too zonked to think, let alone type, coherently by 10:30 p.m.
OK, so anyway, the gigantic gap in my Weeds viewing may be affecting my judgment. I'm catching up thanks to NetFlix, but so far I've only seen Season One [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 24th, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 23
That Kristin, she rocks with the TV scoop sometimes. Or even if she's scoopless, it's not for lack of access, as the video below reveals.
I know what you're thinking, Kristin did all the work and all I did was embed the video here? Well, that's not entirely true. I also prescreened it and can tell [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 23rd, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 20
It's summer time and the TV viewing is sparse.
Me, I'm rewatching 30 Rock Season One and the new season of Weeds now that Battlestar Galactica has gone incognito for 2008. The Office webisodes premiere July 10, but that's only three minutes a week, roughly. It'll take some planning and creativity to fill in the many [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 20th, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 20
How starved are we for quality scripted TV? Let's just say we're like addicts in need of a fix.
Turns out Weeds is addictive after all. How else to explain the Showtime record-breaking 1.3 million viewers Monday's premier drew, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Even new new series "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" got a bump [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 20th, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 19
I missed Steve Carell's return to The Daily Show last night, but that's OK.
Let's face it. The Daily Show? Not always that funny. Funnier than Colbert, sure. But still, it's inconsistent at best. Preachy, tone deaf and repetitive at its worst.
But none of that applies when Carell is on set. Carell is always funny, except [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 19th, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 19
…Steve Carell tells Time Out New York he wants his own ice cream flavor, and other stuff.
…The Office's Rainn Wilson and 30 Rock's Alec Baldwin took part in another Emmy actors roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter, and while Rainn barely gets more t han a few words in edgewise, the loquacious Baldwin weighs in on [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 19th, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 19
Only Jenna Fischer could begin a blog entry with "I threw up" and still make it a fun read.
She pulls of the feat at her MySpace blog from last week, where she talks about her movie, "The Promotion," and a trip home to St. Louis. Her follow-up blog the next day is the better read, [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 19th, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 18
Season 1 of 30 Rock is keeping me on the treadmill in the morning.
I can get in a good episode-and-a-half before work, and my heart thanks me for it even though it's tough to laugh and jog simultaneously. I totally forgot about Josh's spot-on impersonations of Jack and Tracy and about Tracy's big screen [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 18th, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 16
How do you feel about marijuana? The answer that question—and a score of related ones about regulation, legalization, medical use, etc.—may well inform your feelings about Weeds, Showtime's dark comedy about the stuff.
Depending on what your feelings are, it might be a lot to put them aside and just enjoy the brilliant performances by series [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 16th, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 13
Man, what's a blog? That's what summer does to me, and it's not even summer yet. If not for Weeds I don't know what I'd watch on TV once Battlestar Galactica wraps for the year.
But there's nothing like a little concrete Office spinoff scoop to shake me loose from my hiatus-induced TV coma.
Kristin dos [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 13th, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 9
Jenna Fischer's worst day on The Office set came a good four years ago, which means things have only gotten better since.
Fischer tells Parade that day came in season one, during filming of the episode "The Alliance," in which boss Michael Scott insists the crew celebrate a staff member's birthday a month early to [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 9th, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 5
I don't watch a lot of fan videos, even when they're recommended to me. They're wildly popular, and I'm not knocking them. They just don't happen to be my thing.
That said, if you're a fan of the Office you really should take two minutes and 42 seconds out of your life and dig this. (I'd [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 5th, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 4
With her new movie, The Promotion, opening Friday, Jenna Fischer was interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR's Frrresh Aaaiiiirr yesterday. (Don't you love how Terry speaks? I didn't always, but she's grown on me.)
Anyway, amidst several familiar stories, Fischer managed to share a few new insights. The best, I thought, had to do with Office [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 4th, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 2
…I was waiting to read the OfficeTally Writers Q&A with "Goodbye, Toby" co-writer Jen Celotta. Here's just a tiny sample of ones that jumped out at me, but the best part about the rest is that it's way more than just Celotta who chimes in.
Q. If Jan wanted to have a good shot with her [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 2nd, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- June
- 2
A few weeks ago, The Office's Jenna Fischer asked fans if they had any questions for her.
She wasn't kidding. Questions they had, and answers galore she returned—so many it took her two posts at her MySpace blog. Here they are, part I and part II.
If there is a deep, introspective side to Fischer, it [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on June 2nd, 2008 | Post a Comment »
- May
- 30
Tim Conway's recent guest stint on 30 Rock got me thinking about what a funny show The Carol Burnett Show was.
I was too young to know prime time sketch comedy was a dying breed, or even that comic talent of such caliber, all in one place, was a rare thing.
Conway, of course, was the loveable [...]
Posted by Brian Howard on May 30th, 2008 | 1 Comment »