562 replies to this topic

[loudfan]

I realize Kathy Griffin is one of those love-'em-or-hate-'em personalities. I'm a huge fan, so I'm really looking forward to her new talk show, debuting next month on Bravo. I just hope she isn't contractually required to feature or talk about the Real Housewives.

BRAVO GETS CHATTY WITH EMMY WINNER KATHY GRIFFIN PREMIERING WEEKLY PRIMETIME TALK SHOW “KATHY” ON APRIL 19th AT 10:00 PM ET/PTNEW YORK, NY. – March 8, 2012 – Bravo Media will premiere “Kathy,” an all new one-hour weekly pop culture talk show hosted by two-time Emmy award winner Kathy Griffin on Thursday, April 19th at 10:00 PM ET/PT. Every Thursday night, the original gossip girl will have a whole hour to deflate the egos of everyone who is anyone and those who think they're someone. “Kathy” will showcase Griffin’s unique take on celebrities, co-workers, friends, politicians, and yes, even her own boxed-wine swilling mother, Maggie. She’ll be burning the last of her already very few bridges all while enforcing a clothing optional work environment.

“Look, I've called Academy Award winners a-holes and shown the world my awesome 51 year-old boobs, so I asked myself, what else is there to do,” said host Kathy Griffin. “I'm a true original. A snowflake! Time for a talk show, of course! So I called Bravo and clearly, they wanted to see pop culture get bent over by me, so here we go! It WILL hurt, America, but in a good way, I promise. Weeee!!!!”

[braggtastic]

I'll certainly tune in, and hope they strike the right balance for a once a week talk show. I remember really enjoying her previous show that focused on reality TV in the early days of the medium. I don't remember what network it was on or how long it lasted. I hope it's like Bill Maher's show with a bit more of a pop culture bent.

[chessiegal]

Thanks for the heads up! I'll be watching. It will be interesting to see exactly what she does with it.

[bulldawgtownie]

Sometimes I like her and sometimes I don't but either way I'll be checking out her talk show because it does sound interesting.

[Stinger97]

I'll certainly tune in, and hope they strike the right balance for a once a week talk show. I remember really enjoying her previous show that focused on reality TV in the early days of the medium. I don't remember what network it was on or how long it lasted.

OMG, yes. Kathy's So Called Reality was MTV's version of VH1's Talk Soup back in 2001. I loved it. I expect this new talk show to be something similar. I love Kathy's standup, especially when she's really laying into celebrities, so hopefully this will be no different. I'm excited.

Edited by Stinger97, Mar 8, 2012 @ 5:17 PM.

[car54]

I am so glad Bravo is doing this. I've thought for a long time Kathy would be great doing something like this show.

[chessiegal]

Interview with Kathy about her new show.

Huff Post interview with Kathy

[wallybear]

Love Kathy; really hope this show works out. I will be watching.

[PhillipKyler]

I'm kind of in the middle, she's ok. Either way I'll watch.

[ccridernyc]

I have high hopes for this though Kathy has steadily disappointed me the past few years. Her stand-up has gotten a bit too formulaic but I used to adore her pre-D List.

I also agree in the hope it's not a steady cavalcade of Bravo employees as guests.

[Holliday]

Sounds like Chelsea Lately without the guests. Either way, I'll be watching.

[jcsc]

Has anyone in Canada found it on our TV schedule yet?

[shopper gal]

So kids - what'd ya think?

I truly enjoyed the whole beginning 2/3rds. The taped bit with the production staff was fun, but it then dragged down when she brought then out for a reunion. I can always do w/o Maggie, but did appreciate that her handbag is from the George Lopez show.

Liked the panel and the randomness of it all and not too heavy handed on the Bravo plugs - but really I'm Bravo's bitch so any reference to Ho wives gets me.

Did anyone recognize the Black guy? He has been on her D list show and he was one of the *gays* that tried to show the other Kathy Griffin that gays aren't evil...was that Wife Swap? Nah, maybe the "that's my name" show - where celebs traded places with regular folks of the same name?

[meisja]

I truly enjoyed the whole beginning 2/3rds.

I actually set my DVR for this a couple of weeks ago and then forgot about it until today, somehow the promos and appearances just didn't sell me but I was surprised in a good way. The intro and song are very cute and the panel of "normals" is overdue so I found that refreshing. When the woman said that "Andy Cohen is completely unnecessary," I swear I felt a cosmic sigh of relief! Please show: repeat this ad nauseum!!

Her opening monologue reminded me of what I think Rosie's OWN show was trying to do in the few earlier episodes I saw, but it worked in this case because Kathy just starts telling tales and dropping F bombs everywhere. That was a truly funny segment. This got me thinking that Kathy managed to find a way to make up for the drab seasons of D-list and change her Bravo legacy, and that she probably ought to take over for Andy. I hope she gets harder on Bravo in general and keeps calling them out for their nonsense.

I agree that the show sort of lost its pacing when they moved to the reunion segment, though I was glad to see both guys got hired. Doing the show once a week looks promising and I'm pleasantly surprised, the only thing that really needs tweaking is her wardrobe imo; the retro look from the promo? song/video was much better than a semi-awards vibe. I get that she's wearing anything and everything now that she has the body to wear it, but it was too much for me. Even the set was pretty good and it looked like maybe they just cleared out the WWHL set and stuck her set in that corner.

Edited by meisja, Apr 19, 2012 @ 11:00 PM.

[ccridernyc]

The opening was a bit of a frenetic run on sentence, even for her. I do wish Bravo had let her go live or at least day of - Andy has no balls. Maybe he can ask Caroline Manzo for one back at the reunion but I'm doubtful.

Sweet song*. Tiffany looks fab.

Thumbs up.


* A month later I'm going to have to ammend "sweet song" to insidious deal with the devil meant to drive one looney once it gets in your head.

Edited by ccridernyc, May 25, 2012 @ 9:02 AM.

[pomme de divan]

I kinda like the "public access tv" vibe: cheap set, two cameras, loose live feel.
Plus, it's KG. so I'm in.

[ccridernyc]

My pomme! How delightful to run in to you here.

I liked the whatshername chick with the dark hair, she kinda reminded me of me.

Kathy looked good. Sometimes the excessive hair extensions irk me. Yuck on the red shiny dress.

[loudfan]

There's no way this show is going to convert anyone who doesn't already love Kathy. Luckily, I'm a big fan so I thought it was great. I laughed a lot, particularly the panelist's story about Wilson Phillips at Loehmann's, and Kathy's rather gross tampon request, just because it came out of left field. I'm looking forward to my weekly dose of Kathy!

After the theme song played, my husband (yes, a straight male Kathy Griffin fan) said, "That sounds a lot like that Fountains of Wayne guy." And then Kathy announced that FoW's Adam Schlesinger had indeed written it.

[CathinAZ]

Saw today's first show. Nice mix of 1. her standup (here's where she excels with her commentary on current suff!) and 2. Sit down panel discussion. But why is her chair positioned so FAR away from the couch the panel sit on? That looked really strange when the camera pulled back and showed all of the set . . . It was like she wanted to be away from them in her own space. They need to be moved closer to get a better feeling of them chatting together. And a weekly show is PERFECT, daily would be too much and she'd probably give away lot of her standup act having to do daily current events commentary.

Edited by CathinAZ, Apr 20, 2012 @ 1:15 PM.

[Tafatia]

I laughed a lot, if the show can continue to book those kinds of "guests" that will bode well for the show. One thing that bugged me, and I will readily admit that it may be my problem and not Kathy or the show's, was her mother's presence. I like Maggie but I would like to pretend that she is unaware of how blue Kathy can be or at least not aware of it in great detail. Although in addition to my discomfort, I can see how not having Maggie on the front row may also work in Kathy's favor, because Kathy gets a lot of mileage telling stories about her mother's protestations re her schtick, and now seeing her mother in the audience laughing along may "threaten" that, beforehand I could wank that Maggie was just seeing snippets or hearing things second-hand.

Edited by Tafatia, Apr 20, 2012 @ 5:34 AM.

[dreamy]

I enjoyed it, thought the elements were fun, and hope they can keep it fresh week to week, though I think that the fact it IS a weekly show is to her benefit. Daily shows are a ridiculous challenge, and I really believe there are very few people up for that.

[dagny]

I loved Tiffany's roommate and how she knows all of the lyrics to a specific rapper for a specific time period.

[dreamy]

I missed that, dagny, she's Tiffany's ROOMMATE? She was pretty funny, I have to say.

Edited by dreamy, Apr 20, 2012 @ 10:37 AM.

[Imonrey]

My main problem with it is that I don't watch any of the Real Housewives shows, so all the talk about that lost me. There was way too much of it - even Kathy admitted it was something of a Bravo infomercial. But there's enough Kathy in it to keep me watching. I loved the interviews with the staff. Yeah the whole tampon thing was over the top but that's the kind of thing only Kathy can pull off.

I hope she can get some actual guests besides her mother and her friends. I like Maggie just fine but I don't need to see her every week.

[snowflakey]

I love Maggie and have no problem if she gets a mini segment every week. I also love that her guests are regular people and not celebs, gives it such a raw honesty that you can't have with publicists sitting off stage. The PA and the tampon killed me, only Kathy could get away with that. I have no doubt that Team Griffin will be able to come up with stuff to talk about every week.

[Prose]

I really like Kathy, but this show felt like a watered-down version of her comedy specials. And the opening song/sequence seemed way too soft and cutesy for her.

I also like her mom, but a little Maggie goes a long way.

I'll watch again. Hopefully this show will find its voice and pacing.

[Bucky FourEyes]

Hopefully this show will find its voice and pacing.

That's how I felt last night. I think they've got a really great format, and everybody just needs to settle into the rhythm. With Kathy driving, I'll keep watching. I know she can always surprise me at least once a show, and that's more than I can say for a lot of crap I watch.

[pomme de divan]

My pomme! How delightful to run in to you here.

I liked the whatshername chick with the dark hair, she kinda reminded me of me.

Kathy looked good. Sometimes the excessive hair extensions irk me. Yuck on the red shiny dress.

My darling CC! Finally a show we can watch and snark on together.
Yeah, was not a fan of the red dress-but the Wilson-Phillips playing a gig at Loemans to 5 people story made up for it.

[King Cat Sam]

Oh no ! Not again. Banned from NBC.

http://www.dailymail...ie-Morales.html

[heebiejeebie]

I so did not like the show. Granted I figured it was going to be a mess being on BRAVO but I ended up finding it dull and bland and uninteresting.

First, I think it is a mistake to have an audience if the show is taped. Kathy ends up playing to the audience and it somehow ends up being a flat version of her stand up. With guests. Dull insipid guests. The discussion seemed scattered and unfocused. And since they have the BRAVO informercial that is the Andy Cohen mess fest coming on right after I think they could at least leave the Real Housewives pimping to be the second or third topic of the show instead of devoting the top to it.

I do love Kathy and hope it works out but the show for me was just a reminder that she seems a bit stuck in her routine and plays it much safer in terms of who she goes after.

And while I so appreciate all of Kathy's passion and efforts on civil rights, and get that it is her stand up schtick with the whole "where are my gays?!", I think Kathy needs to evolve a little herself. It is a small but significant thing for me in this current socio-political atmosphere of rancor towards anything not wealthy, white established and straight male, for Kathy to still lump all homosexuals into a homogenous lump. For an ally to our cause to continue to do so seems so old and even, completely unintentional I know, narrow minded. I'm not a gay person. I'm a person who happens to be gay. If we can't get people on our side to stop, even in fun and comedy, to think we act and react as a single mass, how the hell are we going to push back the likes of the Mitt Romneys and Rick Santorums in the world? And on a more superficial note, I am humorously insulted to think that I am automatically assumed to have watched a single episode of The A-List. Sorry Kathy. I missed the orders from the Grand Fabulous Leader on high. That and I loathe that Reichen creature and refuse to watch anything he appears on.

Maggie works so much better in the context of the D-List show. More and more in Kathy's stand up it seems like a safe fall back and easy laughs. I know I'm probably in the minority of her fans but if she drags out mom every show that will make this even more unwatchable. Maggie has become a character more than a familial anecdote for me. And I find most of the bits about her to seem heavily contrived or conflated past my point of interest.

the bit with the staff was as bad and laugh free as any of the sketches on Chelsea Lately. I hope that either gets better or tossed completely.

I think the only real funny moment for me was when the one panelist talked about seeing Wilson Philips at the dept store.

and I have a mouth like a sewer. But I think the constant bleeping language Kathy uses seems really forced and trying too hard. It just seems stupid to deliberately use language that she knows will get bleeped. All she did was come off in the one bit like a teen who just learned his first cuss word and uses it around his older friends in an effort to impress. Also the crudity involving the production assistants sketch seemed so unnecessarily lowbrow. Crass works great. When it doesn't seemed forced let alone shoveled on so thick.

I'll give it another week to see what shakes out. But over all it was even more disappointing than I expected and I think she makes a huge mistake in trying to be so "different" even as she really is quite the same. I am surprised at how scattered it was even for a first episode since I've always figured this was something Kathy has been working toward for quite some time and has mentally had an image of what her talk show would be like if she ever got one. Either she lacks a particular skill I figured she had down pat or BRAVO is too involved. Either way I can see myself forgetting it is actually on even if it gets slightly better.