Following on from my earlier post of an interview with Sabrina Lloyd, another old gem from the abc1uk archives is this interview with American actress and comedian Sherri Shepherd (Less Than Perfect, Everybody Loves Raymond).

Interview conducted 17 Oct 06  

1. What was your inspiration to become an actress?
Since I was 4 years old, I’ve always loved making people laugh. I always played “imaginary” games with my sister growing up. I would read romance novels and fantasize about being carried away by a pirate. It was boring being 11 years old, so I would always pretend to be someone else. Even in high school, I use to tell everyone that I was Swedish (complete with an accent)!!!

2. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Hanging out with my 18 month old son. It seems that since I’ve had a baby, the words “spare time” have no meaning!!! There’s always diapers to be changed. I still go out and perform standup. And I’ve now started taking salsa classes, because I have these fantasies of being lifted up in the air by Mario Lopez (on ‘Dancing with the Stars’).

3. abc1 is a UK digital channel, have you ever visited the UK before, and if not would you ever like too?
I’ve never visited the UK, and yes, I would love to. I have fans on MySpace that are from the UK.

4. How did you feel when you landed the part of Ramona Platt in Less Than Perfect?
Ecstatic… Thrilled… Jumping for joy!!! And then they told me I’d be working with Andy Dick, and I said “what the (*&$(!!!” But for the last four years, it has been absolutely wonderful working with Dicky, as we affectionately call Andy, and my other castmates. I’ve formed some lifelong friendships. As a matter of fact, we’re all getting together this weekend for some karaoke.

5. Was there any part of the character of Ramona which resembled you in real life?
The mothering and nurturing part of Ramona is all Sherri!!! Everyone in the cast always came to me for some extra hugs and a shoulder to lean on.

6. What was it like working with Andy Dick, who you had a lot of screen time with on the show?
See Answer to Question #4!!! At first I was terrified. I’d heard so much about Andy, but the first day we got on the set, Andy says to me “I don’t know how much power I have, but I’m going to see if they’ll let us come in at 11 a.m. (we had to report on the set at 9:00 a.m.), so that we can sleep later” that comment right there, had me cracking up. And Andy has kept me laughing for the last 4 years. We’re very close. Sometimes when I get out of a comedy club at midnight, I’ll go to Andy’s place and just sit on the couch with him. He’s like my little brother.

Now working with him was a blast, because Andy never does anything the same way. So he’d say something that wasn’t in the script, and I’d have a very difficult time keeping the laughter from bursting forth. We always would get into trouble, because the camera people would have to do the most “takes” with Andy & I.

7. On screen there seemed to be chemistry between all of the cast members from Less Than Perfect, was it like that offset as well?
Wow… see Answer to Question #4 :O) Yes it was awesome the chemistry that we shared from Day #1. You don’t find that with a lot of shows. We always hung out together. We had many karaoke parties, skating parties, and Andy loved taking us all out to eat at some kind of crazy health food restaurants (he’s a health food nut). We genuinely loved coming to work each and every day. Will Sasso and Zachary Levi always kept us laughing with their antics, Andrea Parker loved coming in and hugging everyone, you could always find Sara lounging around and Andy… well Andy is Andy!

8. While filming Less Than Perfect were there any memorable bloopers or moments that you can remember?
There was a scene where Andy’s character (Owen) and Andrea’s character (Lydia) had to kiss each other at the office Christmas party. Andy was sick with a really bad cold, and Andrea didn’t want to even be around him. So after every kiss, the cameras would stop rolling and Andrea would take a swig of listerine and spit it out. Of course, Andy kept saying that the kiss wasn’t “quite right”, so Andrea ended up kissing him more than 7 times. She was not happy.

Someone always would lock the doors on the set, so that whenever Sara’s character (Claude) had to enter or exit, she’d bump into the door. She was so into character, that it would throw her everytime. We’d always crack up.

I would always forget my lines, so Ramona would be saying something and then go completely blank… the cast always teased me because of this.

And Ramona was always hiding something inside of her shirt… problem is… is that her boobies were so big, the prop would get lost and Andy would always go diving inside my bra to find it!

9. What was your reaction when abc announced the cancelation of the series?
I was sad that a beautiful show was ending. I was heartbroken that I wouldn’t be seeing my friends everyday. I have grown to love Ramona and was sad that I would no longer be able to portray this crazy girl who really loved her friends.

10. Do you have any plans for the future?
Wow… I just completed a pilot for my own talk show. I’ve just completed a pilot starring Patricia Heaton and Jenny McCarthy, and if that doesn’t go… I’ve always got a baby to burp and some diapers to change!

One from the archives now - an interview which I organised with the American actress Sabrina Lloyd, (who starred in Sports Night and Numb3rs) back in June 2006 for the unofficial website abc1uk.co.uk for the channel abc1 (both sadly now defunct!).

Since the TV channel closed and the website ended along with it, this has been lost from the world, stored on my hard drive. But now I’m re-publishing the interview here to give it a fresh breath of air, and atleast some people will be able to still see and read it!

This interview was first published at abc1uk.co.uk in June 2006
Interviewer: Lloyd England

Interview with Sabrina Lloyd

1. What first inspired you to become an actress?
I started in community theater when i was a young girl. it was my mom’s idea. i had a lot of energy and she was trying to find an outlet for it.

2. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? Have you ever travelled to the UK before?
Traveling is one of my great passions and something i do a lot of. yes, i have been there. i loved it.

3. While filming Sports Night was there any memorable bloopers and moments that you can remember?
It’s been so long now, i don’t remember too much.

4. You fitted the role of Natalie perfectly, was there anything about the character that resembles you?
Yes, there is a lot of me in natalie but i think she might be more fun to have at a party.

5. On screen there seemed to be a chemistry between all of the cast members from Sports Night was it like that off set as well?
I think there was tremendous respect between all of us. we worked hard and we loved our job.

6. If Sports Night had carried on further than the 2 seasons that were made would you have wanted to continue?
Oh yes. i would have loved too.

7. …and would you ever consider doing a Sports Night reunion to conclude the story if one was ever written?
I think i am too old to play natalie now.

8. Do you keep in contact with the other cast members from Sports Night?
I don’t. Life moves in different directions.

9. In your opinion should Aaron Sorkin have continued writing Sports Night or do you think it was better to leave it where it was?
I wish he would have continued, but only he knows whether it was the right time to leave. if he had told his story and was done, then i guess it was the right time.

10. Is Sports Night the type of show that you would watch if you had any free time?
Yes.

11. How do you think Aaron Sorkin’s new show, Studio 60, which like Sports Night is based around the behind-the-scenes look of a television show, will compare with Sports Night?
I don’t know but i am sure it will be great.

12. Over your career has there been one thing that you have enjoyed doing the most?
Every job has it’s own journey. some have been great. sports night was one. dopamine, a film i did, was another. that was just an amazing experience for me.

13. What was it like recording your latest movie, Universal Signs, with it being a modern silent film, shot primarily in black and white? How different was it than other shows and movies you have starred in?
It was a challenge and very hard and wonderful. i loved it. i loved learning sign language. i worked on that for 3 months prior to filming.

14. Since Universal Signs is now in post production, have you got anything else on the horizon?
I am working on a film this summer with melissa leo and david strathairn. it’s called racing daylight.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to chat to us at ABC1 UK, and we wish you all the best for the future.
Thank you!

Three years to the day since ABC1 was launched, two and a half years since I launched the unofficial abc1uk website, the channel has come to an end with Disney pulling the plug and so with that, the unofficial website has had to close too.

It’s been a good couple of years with the site, with it being the first large scale site I’ve had to manage and deal with, and then a year later after teaming up with Myles, we recoded and redesigned the site to make it into the monster it became!

I’ve had online interviews with stars from ABC1 TV Shows, namely Sabrina Lloyd from Sports Night and Sherri Shepherd from Less Than Perfect, the site gained a whole heap of users and members to it’s forums, and it really did become a mini community with Disney having a look around the site on a regular basis!

Sadly though that is now all over, but there are always some people I would like to thank, namely;

Myles Noton, for to whom if it wasn’t for him the site probably wouldn’t have become so big and rich in features, and thus popular.
John Thackery, for providing hosting and tech support, and being there in times of crisis!
Joyce Rubin at Disney, for patiently providing as much information as she could on news about the channel and shows
The interviewees; Sabrina Lloyd and Sherri Shepherd, and their agents, to take the time to answer a few questions
And finally the visitors who took the time to keep visiting and who joined the community, and stayed with us when things sometimes went bad!

So a little over three months since me and Myles spotted an episode of The Bill being filmed with Louisa Lytton & John Bowler near our flat, the episode finally aired on TV a few nights ago, and after close expection lo and behold, there was me! Driving past the pet shop which was the main focal point of the episode!

My five seconds of fame, shown here in a screencap from the episode.

While I sit here typing away with James Bond; Tomorrow Never Dies playing in the background on our seven year old standard definition (SD) television, people around the world are snapping up the latest in technology - High Definition (HD) televisions. With the chance to watch much better quality TV, and with prices becoming lower and lower you can’t blame people for moving over.

But already, the next generation of TV’s have started being developed, in the form of Ultra High Definition (UHD). Back in November 2005, the Japanese public service broadcaster, Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), first demonstrated the technology, but with the recent news development has begun, it only shows that we’re one step closer to it becoming a reality in our homes.

Now, how does UHD compare to HD you may ask? Well, its alot. An awful lot. If UHD was a Ferrari, HD would be an everyday Ford, and SD would be, well, a Skoda. An old Skoda at that, from 1981. Anyways, UHD is capable of a very impressive 7680 x 4320 resolution compared to 1080p HD (thats the decent HD, not the cheap ass HD) which broadcasts at 1920 x 1080. Yes, I know that’s alot of numbers which probably mean less to you than anything. But, in a nut shell, you would need 16 HD TV’s, placed into a 4 x 4 grid to replicate what UHD TV can produce.

To make it easier to understand and actually visualise, the image on the right is an accurate representation of the sheer magnitude of UHD TV. The blue area represents UHD TV, the yellow area represents 1080p HD TV, and the white area is 720p HD TV. The picture quality is undoubtly un imaginable until we actually see it for real, but my question is, what size TV would you need to make UHD TV actually worth it?

But with this increased resolution brings an increased file size for video and television broadcast. One minute of uncompressed video footage is 194GB, which would mean a two hour movie would need approximately 25TB of storage, (thats 25,000GB). The transfer rate currently is 24 Gigabits a second, something which is unbelivable in todays current broadcast systems. This is one of the biggest hurdles at the moment facing this new technology. The video data would have to be encoded to be able to be broadcast to make it feasable, but seeing as how at the moment each encoding unit (you technically need 2, one at the broadcast end (ie. TV Studio) and one in the TV itself) being as tall as a person, they would need to be the size of a few chips able to fit into the back of a TV to make this technology work.

Either way, there’s no doubt UHD TV is years and years off yet, so there’s no need to throw away those sparkly new Blu-ray and HD DVD’s just yet, but it does go to show that one day we will have to again, and with his new technology already in development, it’s only a matter of time.

Well, another year, another television season is coming to an end in the states. Here, I’m going to delve into each major show which I watch and give my views on them all!

[I'll be discussing the plots and season finale's of - Lost Season 3; Ugly Betty Season 1; Greys Anatomy Season 3; 24 Season 6 - all at American Pace - so if you don't want to know yet - look away now - you have been warned!]

Ugly Betty

A pretty good season finale here; with the shock of Santo’s surprise death which was done pretty well, and with Betty not being able to stop Henry in time, what will happen!? A show I’m looking forward to returning in a few months!

Grey’s Anatomy

It ended?!?! I was honestly expecting one more final episode! A pretty mundane finale compared to the others this year in my opinion, granted we do have the ‘What’s gonna happen to Burke and George?’ and I guess we were introduced to a couple potential new stars, namely the new 1st year interns. But, other than that there was no real fanfare, the worst kept secret of all time that Addison Shepherd would be leaving was hinted at, and yea, we’ve now been left with then ‘What’s going to happen to Derek & Meredith… but, unless it’s just me, that story is getting a bit old now, over the past three season’s they’ve split up and gotten back together more times than I’ve gone toilet! But, nevertheless, it’s still a good show and I’ll be waiting eagerly for the next season…

24

Fantastic double episode finale, and really sums up so far the true Jack Bauer, and how his career has changed and affected his life and everyone he cares and loves forever. The suspense throughout was gripping, only to end with a sentimental last ten minutes. It’s what the season and the show needed at this point, and they pulled it off fantastically. I now don’t know how I will cope having to wait until January 2008 for the next season and what the future has instore for Jack, especially how the network executives are planning a ‘major change’ to the show; I’ll be waiting with much anticipation!

Lost

Oh My! I’m not going to say much about Lost, for all those who are yet to watch it! - Ahem! - but this was a truely amazing season finale! The twists and such and wow. Best finale from Lost yet in my opinion, and I really, really, wont be able to cope until it returns in January!

Other shows which ended thier seasons a while back, but still worth a mention; Eureka - A show which finished it’s first run way back in the Autumn which seems like a life time ago, it’ll be good to get it back! Stargate SG-1 - Sadly TV Season-wise it may be over for good, but the two new TV Movies which are airing this Autumn will be a long waited return and hopefully a final good end to a good story line. Stargate Atlantis - Back this Autumn as well, and seeing as how we were left on a knife edge not knowing what will happen to our Atlantians, and the rumoured ‘Cast Culling’ will be interesting to see what happens, and hopefully when Sam Carter arrives there will be plenty of Sam - Rodney scenes! 

So, what will I be watching over the summer months to keep me sane until the next season starts in a few months? Well, Studio 60 starts again tonight, and after a few months off the air, it will be good to get back into that, even if it will probably only be for a 6 - 8 more episodes. Another Aaron Sorkin show which I’ll be watching is The West Wing, which until recently I hadn’t seen even one episode of, but now I am hooked!

While heading towards the town center earlier today, Myles and I came across what we thought was a film crew getting prepared, and, shortly there after it was confirmed, The Bill (which reguarly uses Kingston as a filming location) was being filmed just minutes from our flat. Then we spotted Louisa Lytton (PC Beth Green (aka Ruby Allen from the Eastenders)) who will be on your screen in The Bill in a few weeks time and John Bowler (PC Roger Valentine), filming scenes in and around an abandoned shop which ended up lasting all day.

We then attempted to take a couple photos from my car as we drove past from my camera phone, but luck wasn’t on our side and the photo didn’t end up too good, even with Louisa smiling and posing for the shot as she noticed what we were doing. So, Myles and I took Plan B into action, when Myles went to get his proper camera to try and get some better photos, some of which are shown below.

It’s Friday 13th, and for some shows and for some fans, this really is not going to be a good day! I can tell you are all eager with anticipation to find out who won the SOS poll. This year the top two shows will be given support to be brought back, so in theory, the shows in both first and second place have won.

Results (Position/Name/Votes) (Top Five Also: TV Network & Link);

1. Gilmore Girls: 2.2 million (CW)
2. Veronica Mars: 1.9 million (CW)
3. One Tree Hill: 950,802 (CW)
4. Supernatural: 413,014 (CW)
5. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: 120,312 (NBC)
6. Crossing Jordan: 30,552
7. Friday Night Lights: 23,195 (six more scripts have been ordered)
8. How I Met Your Mother: 21,761
9. What About Brian: 14,003
10. Jericho: 13,328
11. The Class: 13,238
12. Medium: 11,811(six more scripts have been ordered)
13. Scrubs: 9,248
14. 30 Rock: 5,189 votes (already picked up by NBC)
15. Close to Home: 2,433
16. Six Degrees: 1,711
17. The Nine: 1,126

As you can see the CW fans were out in force, with four of the top five shows being from the CW network. Now, what this says about what will happen to the shows which didn’t make it - is anyone’s guess, but it’s still TV bubble time in the states, and within the next few weeks we will know exactly who the real winners and losers were this year. Hopefully my favourite Studio 60 will survive! Hopefully…

Full Information and Link: SOS Poll Results @ E! Online

Six people, six lives, all living in New York City. Strangers, who through coincidence and chance - or - is it fate? - meet each other throughout thier everyday lives, and how they effect each other. It sounds pretty intriguing to me atleast, but not so it would have seemed to ABC in America.

It was pulled early on from thier schedules over in the states due to low ratings - but importantly not cancelled, just placed on a hiatus for a while. Well, two weeks ago it finally returned, sadly with little advertising and fan fair - but, with the promise and hopes of new cast members to join to hopefully make it more successful.

Well, last night I was pondering whether to post about me being at a location in NYC last year where they had filmed a scene - and showing pictures to show where it had happened, but alas, the gods at ABC have spoken, and after two weeks and only two episodes to give the show another try, Six Degrees is sadly no more.

Now, this maybe little news to folk in the UK, where the show has still yet to premiere on ITV1, but this does now even affect whether it will even be shown on ITV1. ABC only aired in total eight episodes, now granted they would have filmed more, how many more remains to be seen - a TV show can only be sold to other networks abroad if it has a minimum of 13 episodes in a season.

So, for now, its just yet another waiting game for the show, if 13 or more episodes were made, we’ll have to wait until they air on an ITV channel (I doubt it will any longer be ITV1, due to the show’s cancellation, but it’s a good show for ITV2) If not, the remaining episodes will most likely be shown online on abc.com - but, whether or not international viewers will ever get the chance to be able to see them, is another matter entirely.

All in all, it’s safe to say it’s gone from ABC for good, and thus no point in voting for it in the SOS poll! A quick update on that; and apparently the leader is moving away from the pack, however the show in 3rd place is rapidly moving up towards 2nd!

It’s TV bubble time over in the States at the moment; the time of year when the major TV Networks decide whether to renew thier shows for another season, or burst their bubble and stop them!

 Now, while some shows are completely safe and secure for yet another year, such as Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, 24, Ugly Betty etc - there are some equally as good shows which sadly may be facing the chop!

So, what can you do? Especially over in the UK? Well - E! Online for the 7th year running have set up a poll of all the possibily endangered shows, giving you the chance to vote for the one show you want to see saved and brought back next year for another season! The winner receives show-saving promotion in all three of their mediums—E! Online, E! News and the Vine. Plus, they will personally deliver your show-saving plea directly to the network execs of the winning show.

Now, before any of you say that online polls are pointless (most of which normally are), this one is different. Apparently they have successfully saved the winning show five out of the previous six previous years - which is pretty damn impressive. Also, as they are well established in the Media industry themselves, they have a wealth of credibiity which the network execs love!

So, get voting - the whole complete list can be found here at E! Online - So far over 600,000 votes have been counted and you only have until Friday 6th April to cast your vote!

As of Thursday 29th; the top five leading shows so far (in alpahbetical order) are;

Gilmore Girls
One Tree Hill
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Supernatural
Veronica Mars

So, as they are in alpahbetical order, any of those five maybe winning - but apparently the top two are neck and neck!

Hopefully you’ll make the right decision! *cough* Vote Studio 60! *cough*