'Medium' Has An Awesome Halloween Episode Planned

[Brian Damage]

The producer of "Medium" has acquired the rights to use George A. Romero's classic "Night of the Living Dead" and will stage a mash-up episode inserting Patricia Arquette's character into the film. The outing will air just before Halloween.

"I'm so excited about it because I love that movie," Arquette said. "Also I started out in horror movies with 'Nightmare on Elm Street, Part 3.'"

But what critics at the summer press tour really want to know is: What do showrunner Glenn Gordon Caron and Patricia Arquette have to say about NBC now that "Medium" is moving to CBS?

"The CBS conversation has been going on for five years," Caron said of the switch. "[Our new lead-in] 'Ghost Whisper' is clearly a show people like. And given our history [at NBC], it's nice to follow a show people really like. Last time we were [at press tour] NBC made us walk."

Caron emphasized that he was "incredibly grateful to NBC," yet was repeatedly pressed by critics to talk about the subject and obliged with a couple more critical statements.

"CBS has already run more promos than NBC has in the whole five years," he said, drawing appreciative chuckles from CBS executives at the back of the ballroom. "For the first time in three years we're going to do 22 episodes ... there were times along the way even a couple inside NBC thought maybe if we gave the show a little more attention -- that's no great secret there. Could things have been done differently? Sure."

Caron compared the fate of his show to the buzz-heavy "Chuck," which received a last-minute pickup.

"'Chuck' is a really, really good show ... that NBC has attempted to launch twice. ... Those people have generated a tremendous amount of buzz for the show ... but that hasn't translated into ratings ... and what does that say about the show? ... We didn't create as much buzz as 'Chuck,' but we did attract more viewers."

Had he received a longer notice about his show's fate on NBC, "We had a whole Quiznos thing set up."

Caron was also asked about the showrunner protest against the TV Academy/CBS for cutting two writing categories, and he gave a rather eloquent answer:

"A big part of success or failure is the writing that contributes to the show, so the idea of moving the writing off of the main broadcast seems short-sighted," he said. "Television is in a unique position to say these things are thought about, written, read, and when we take those things off the main broadcast it diminishes the importance of that.... This is a written medium. but it begins with a blank page. How can you have this whole procession of people picking up prizes and not have the people who are there when nothing exists?"

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/08/mediu...ving-dead.html