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TMZ on TV

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TMZ on TV
File:TMZ Logo.PNG
StarringHarvey Levin
Kelly Berning
Max Hodges
Dax Holt
Charles Latibeaudiere
Evan Rosenblum
Shevonne Sullivan
Mike Walters
Chad Weiser
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons4
Production
Executive producersHarvey Levin
Jim Paratore
Running time22 minutes
Production companiesParamedia Entertainment
Harvey Levin Productions
Telepictures Productions
Original release
NetworkFirst-run syndication
ReleaseSeptember 10, 2007 –
present

TMZ on TV, or simply TMZ and TMZTV, is an American syndicated entertainment and gossip news television show that premiered on September 10, 2007. The program is generally aired on Fox, The CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates, though a majority of the stations that carry the series are Fox affiliates. It is essentially a television version of its sister operation, TMZ.com, a news website with a heavy emphasis on gossip of celebrities' personal lives, which debuted in December 2005.

The TV show and website are produced in a studio facility on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. TMZ is an insider term ("thirty-mile zone" or studio zone) referencing the movie studio area of downtown Hollywood.

Format

TMZ on TV is broadcast in two formats: the weekday edition is broadcast as a half-hour program; a one-hour weekend edition, composed of select stories featured in each of the weekday editions from the previous week, is also produced; during major holidays occurring on a weekday, that episode may feature a format similar to the weekend edition but featuring a compilation of stories from past editions centered around a particular theme (e.g., a Christmas episode may center on celebrities who have been bad or good in the past year).

Unlike most entertainment news programs, TMZ on TV does not use a format of anchors in a studio delivering the stories and correspondents reporting on many of the stories in each edition; instead, most story packages are delivered via an announcer, and "in-studio" segments are taped during a morning staff meeting at TMZ's Sunset Boulevard headquarters, with some TMZ staffers delivering story pieces themselves.

The series delivers most of its stories in a humorous manner, mainly about certain celebrities, and features tongue-in-cheek jokes and double entendres, though more serious entertainment stories (e.g., breaking entertainment story, celebrity death) often warrant a serious tone. Pieces often feature archived clips from TV series and movies often for comedic effect, though they may sometimes be used to reference a project that an entertainer is known for performing in. Many pieces are shown in the "man on the street"-type question and answer format synonymous with paparazzi, though some celebrities do not answer certain questions asked to them by the videographer; a common recurring reference within the program is how certain TMZ videographers sometimes ask extremely trivial or bad questions to their subject.

In lieu of regular daily segments such as a rumor mill segment, the program often shows recurring segments that appear over several episodes that feature a humorous or satirical introduction (e.g., after the Tiger Woods adultery scandal broke in November 2009, all stories involving Woods began with the introduction: "TNN: The Tiger News Network", using a logo and name parodying that of cable news channel CNN, a sister company to TMZ.com and the TV series distributors' Warner Bros. Television and Telepictures, via Time Warner); however for the first few weeks of the show's run, the series carried a daily segment called "Full Frontal Fashion", featuring celebrity fashion blunders, it was quickly dropped after about a month.

On-air cast

Certain members of the TMZ website double as the on-air cast.[1]

  • Harvey Levin – executive producer
  • Charles Latibeaudiere – co-executive producer
  • Evan Rosenblum – co-executive producer
  • Todd Frangella – line producer
  • Daniel Goldblatt – producer
  • Rick Mitchell – producer
  • Nina Parker – producer
  • Matthew Weiss – producer
  • Chris Reed – producer/announcer
  • Jim Goldenberg - producer/announcer
  • Noah Belson - producer
  • Christie Bear – assignment desk/associate producer
  • Chad Weiser – post-production supervisor
  • Max Hodges – clip clearance producer
  • Dax Holt – clip clearance producer
  • Kelly Berning – editor
  • Eric Colley – editor
  • Nicole Fertile - TMZ publicist
  • Anna Kachikyan – tape librarian
  • Shevonne Sullivan – post production coordinator
  • Mike Walters – assignment manager

Former cast

Criticism

Broadcasting stolen material

TMZ was criticized for purchasing stolen items pertaining to the fourth Indiana Jones film. On October 2, 2007, IESB reported that a number of production photos and sensitive documents pertaining to the production budget had been stolen from Steven Spielberg’s production office. According to IESB, TMZ.com obtained some of the stolen property and was on the verge of running the story on the TV show until Paramount lawyers stepped in. After IESB broke the story, TMZ on TV did indeed broadcast details about the Indiana Jones production budget on the October 3, 2007, program.[3][4]

Parodies

  • On August 26, 2009, 3rd Degree Films released a pornographic film based on TMZ called TM Sleaze. The film "turns up the heat and the humor as you get to see what happens when celebrities get engaged in hardcore humping". It contains popular pornographic actors and actresses such as Ron Jeremy, Lisa Ann, Tori Black, and Faye Reagan.[5]
  • Originating in 2009 on the short-lived NBC primetime talk show The Jay Leno Show and currently used since 2010 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, comedian Mikey Day performs a sketch called "JMZ"; in it, Day and his "camera crew" track down celebrities (some actual celebrities appear in the sketch, while impersonators whose faces are not shown are shown sometimes in the sketch), which end up with Day involved in strange situations.
  • The season one episode "Robarazzi" of the Nickelodeon series Victorious, features a parody of TMZ on TV. In the episode, Robbie (Matt Bennett) turns Hollywood Arts High School's online video blog into a tabloid about the students of Hollywood Arts; shown in the episode are scenes that parody the TMZ.com morning staff meeting seen in every TMZ on TV episode, including a teen character who is himself a parody of TMZ clip clearance coordinator Max Hodges.
  • An episode of Cartoon Network series Mad parodied this as TMNTMZ.
  • TMZ was featured in a video on Meg Griffin's laptop, dealing with the Lauren Conrad and Brian Griffin scandle on the episode "We Love You, Conrad" on Family Guy. Stewie Griffin had his silhouette shown in the video and he was discussing how he knew Brian and how he saw him and Lauren together.
  • Weird Al Yankovic wrote a song about the website and TV show on his album Alpocalypse.

International broadcasting

References

  1. ^ InBaseline: TMZ Cast Retrieved on 16 May 2010
  2. ^ SeanBorg.com
  3. ^ "When It Gets Interesting"
  4. ^ "Why Won't They Tell The Indy IV Theft Story Accurately?"
  5. ^ TM Sleaze DVD

Further reading

  • Barnhart, Aaron (July 25, 2007). "TMZ is so H-O-T, it will branch out to daily TV show". Kansas City Star.
  • Pursell, Chris (August 12, 2007). "Talent Lineup Unveiled for Telepictures' 'TMZ'". TVWeek.com.
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