Mike Hughes on TV

In its first 15 seasons, "Dancing With the Stars" has been won by seven athletes, three singers and two actors, plus a TV personality, reality star Melissa Rycroft and soldier-turned-actor J.R. Martinez.

So far, however, it's never been won by a comedian-turned-actor. Andy Dick -- wonderfully talented and consistently offbeat -- tries to be the first. Here's the story I sent to papers:

By MIKE HUGHES

In this do-over, retake world, “Dancing
With the Stars” is different.

This is live TV, for good or bad. “The
lights go on, the cameras go on and there you are, on the No. 1 TV
show,” Andy Dick said.

He's used to working live for most of
his career – ranging from improvisation groups in Chicago to
current stand-up gigs in Los Angeles. But that's in comedy, where
he's comfortable. “Someone told me, 'Life begins at the end of your
comfort zone,'” Dick said.

When the “Dancing” edition starts
Monday, almost everyone will be out of that zone.

Of the 12 contestants, only three are
know for doing dance-type choreography: Zendaya Coleman is a
16-year-old co-star of the Disney Channel's “Shake It
Up”;.Alexandra Raisman (gymnastics) and Dorothy Hamill (figure
skating) are Olympic gold-medalists.

The others are on new turf. There are
two country singers (Wynonna Judd and Kellie Pickler) and two reality
stars (Sean Lowe and Lisa Vanderpump), plus boxer Victor Ortiz,
“General Hospital” actor Ingo Rademacher, comedian D.L. Hughley
and Jacoby Jones, whose 108-yard kick-off return propelled the
Ravens' Super Bowl win.

Then there's Dick, not usually
associated with physical triumph. Even when he was the Homecoming
king in high school, he didn't dance – and didn't campaign regally.
“I won because of my slogan: 'Don't vote for a dick, vote for A.
Dick.'”

Still, he does have some nimble moves,
“All the way back to 'The Ben Stiller Show' (in 1992), I was
choreographing my pratfalls,” he said.

Now he has a pro (Sharna Burgess, in
her first time as a “Stars” regular) to choreograph and dance
with him. She's been taking it seriously, Dick said. “I thought,
'She's like my mom and dad!'”

That's serious company. “My dad was
the lieutenant commander of a submarine,” Dick said. “He ran the
whole family like a tight ship.”

Being in a Navy family meant a mobile
childhood. Dick was born in South Carolina, then lived in
Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York and Yugoslavia, before spending
his teen years near Chicago.

Then the disciplined kid became an
undisciplined adult, with decades of drug and alcohol problems and a
long list of arrests and rehab stints. Now he talks about the “old
Andy” and “new Andy” and hires people to supervise his
sobriety. “When I go to New York, they pass me on to someone else.”

He had plenty of time to party, because
his career wasn't challenging. “What I did for 30 years came
easily,” Dick said. “The 'NewsRadio' character I played (1995-99)
was basically me.”

His recent “2 Broke Girls” role as
a crazed puppeteer delighted the audience and Dick. ( “I loved it,”
he said. “The cast was phenomenal.”) It was also, he grants,
“right in my wheelhouse.”

Work has been easy, he said; “that's
when I have trouble.” Now, at 47, he's leaping out of that comfort
zone. He's taking orders and he's dancing – live, with no chance
for a do-over.

– “Dancing With the Stars,”
8-10:01 p.m. Mondays; results show, 9-10:01 p.m. Tuesdays, ABC

– 16^th edition starts
Monday; there's no results show the first week, so the Tuesday spot
on March 19 will go to “'Dancing With the Stars: Exclusive First
Look”

Some nights, TV simply get overcrowded. Tuesday (Feb. 26) is one of those, when our video recorders take over.

There's "Makers," a terrific PBS documentary. (See previous blog.) And there's the start of HBO's "Parade's End" ... which, fortunately, continues through Thursday and reruns Saturday. Here's the story I sent to papers:

By MIKE HUGHES

Let's forgive Benedict Cumberbatch for
feeling ordinary. Lately, he's been surrounded by geniuses.

There are the fictional ones. He plays
Sherlock Holmes in PBS films; now he's Christopher Tietjens –
described by author Ford Madox Ford as “the cleverest man in
England” – in HBO's “Parade's End.”

And there are the real-life brains –
Steven Moffat, who writes the Sherlock films, Sir Tom Stoppard, the
“Parade's End” writer. “They're far brighter than you could
ever be,” Cumberbatch said.

We may never know if Cumberbatch is a
genius, too. He briefly considered being a lawyer, then became an
actor, the same as his mom and dad.

But he looks smart, with a lean,
British face. He has already played Stephen Hawking, Vincent Van Gogh
and Dr. Frankenstein, plus Holmes and Tietjens and more. Next is
Julian Assange.

Cumberbatch was the logical choice for
“Parade's End,” Stoppard said. Then he wasn't available.

“It was heartbreaking,” Stoppard
said. “I was so upset, … thinking, 'Oh, God. We just missed it.'”

Other circumstances slowed the start of
“Parade's End.” When it came, Cumberbatch was available.

All of this started with Stoppard, who
has already won an Oscar (for “Shakespeare in Love”) and four
Tonys. He “devoted a year of his life to adapting (Ford's) novels,”
said HBO executive Kary Antholis.

It was tough to adapt this complex
tale, set a century ago. Tietjens goes in and out of love and war,
while surrounded by two opposite women.

One, played by Adelaide Clemens,is
sweet and thoughtful. The other, played by Rebecca Hall, is not. “She
has no analytic capability,” Hall said, “so (her energy) goes
into manipulation.”

All of this sprawls years and nations,
with 146 sets. “It's a huge and epic piece of television,” said
director Susanna White. And at the core are some impressive IQ's.

– Parade's End, HBO

– Five-hour film debuts over three
nights: 9-11:05 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 9-10 p.m. Thursday

– Reruns in one gulp, 11 a.m. to 4
p.m. Saturday

– Then moves to HBO2, 8-9 p.m., March
4-8

A PBS documentary Tuesday is impressive in its size, its scope and its fairness. "Makers: Women Who Make America" captures a half-century that changed our society.

There's no way to catch it all in one story, so I focused on one small portion. Barbara Burns only gets a few minutes of these three hours, but her life is the sort that forged change. Here's the story I sent to papers:

By MIKE HUGHES

Barbara Burns' people didn't usually
make news or controversy. Mostly, they worked coal mines.

“My dad worked there,” she said.
“So did all of his brothers and his cousins and his father.”

And in 1975, it was her turn. “I went
to the personnel office and they brought out an application for
secretary,” she said. “I said, 'No, I want to be a miner.'”

She would become one of the first
American women to work underground mines, then would win a major
lawsuit. “People like Barbara (are) the unsung heroes,” said
Barak Goodman, director of PBS' “Makers: Women Who Make America.”
They are “the ordinary women who just simply said 'enough.'”

So this ex-miner from Crawley, W. Va.,
was with the stars of the women's movement – Gloria Steinem, Marlo
Thomas, Aileen Hernandez – discussing “Makers.” Later, she sat
down to detail her own story.

Burns had lived the standard life as a
wife and mother of two. Her husband had kidney problems and they
needed money; she was a waitress and a factory worker, but the money
was in mining.

“There were women in Kentucky that
(mined),” she said. “I thought, 'Well, if they could do it, I
could.'”

She asked the surprised personnel man
for an application. “He had to give it to me,”

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had said
employers can't discriminate by race, sex, color, religion or
national origin. It had also created the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission.

“It was a very weak law,” said
Aileen Hernandez, the only woman on the original, five-person
committee. And “it did not have very many dollars …. There really
were not very many people at that point who thought any of these laws
should have been passed.”

On a broad scale, the EEOC ruled that
it is illegal to fire someone because of marriage and it's illegal
to separate the help-wanted ads by male and female. On individual
matters, however, it was deluged; I the first year, its 100
employees received 8,852 complaints.

A decade later, when Burns looked for
work, some of that had settled in. “It took me about a year,” she
said, but she got the job.

Her co-workers razzed her a bit, even
investing in some Playgirl magazines. “They plastered my bathhouse
with pictures of naked men and … they all lined up, waiting for me
…. I just took the book, like I was reading it, (and said), 'Thank
you, I've always wanted to see one and I was too bashful to buy it
and I expect one every month.' Never got another one.”

This was rarely antagonistic, she said,
because of the realities of Crawley life. “I went to school with a
lot of the guys” and others were friends of her dad and uncles.

Some resisted being paired with her,
but that changed “when they saw I could do the work.” The big
difference came, however, when she was recruited by Smoot Coal in
1984.

Burns started as lab technician and was
soon promoted to safety director and did public relations work. The
company president, she said, wanted more. “He always kissed the
'girls,' as he called them, on the cheek,” she said. “It wasn't a
sexual thing, (but) I asked him to try not to brush into me.”

He started phoning at night, she said.
“I went to other coal companies, but he said not to hire me.”

So in 1986 she went to Betty Jean Hall,
who had a law office in her basement, and they began the suit for sex
discrimination and sexual harassment. “I was taught that once you
started something, you saw it through; you're not a quitter. It took
nine years, but we didn't quit.”

She's now in her second career, as a
nurse, but her impact lingers. “When women integrated coal-mining,
the safety standards went up for everyone,” Steinem said.

The next generations see a different
world, Thomas said.. “They're seeing a female secretary of state,
female senators and congresspeople, women running the news …. Women
are everywhere.”

Including the coal mines of West
Virginia.

– “Makers: Women Who Make America,”
8-11 p.m. Tuesday, PBS (check local listings)

– Covers a 50-year span of women's
rights, pausing briefly for Barbara Burns and other individuals

The three previous blogs look at Sunday's Academy Award show. Now we'll wrap this up with a quick list of what's when; here's the story I sent to papers:

By MIKE HUGHES

Here is a glance at this year's Academy
Award ceremony; all times are ET:

– When: 8:30 p.m. Sunday, ABC;
scheduled to finish at 11:30, but often runs late.

– Red-carpet previews: They're 5:30-8
p.m. on E (Ryan Seacrest anchors); 6-7:30 p.m. on TV Guide Network
(Chris Harrison), 7-8:30 p.m on ABC (Chris Connelly).

– Pre-previews: E starts its advance
coverage at 1:30 p.m.; TV Guide has specials from 1-3 p.m. and 5-6
p.m. Also,Turner Classic Movies shows epic Oscar-winners – “Bridge
on the River Kwai” (1957) at 9:30 a.m., “Lawrence of Arabia”
(1962) at 12:30 p.m., “Gandhi” (1982) at 4:30 p.m.

– Afterward: ABC has “Jimmy Kimmel
Live” at midnight (or later); E has an “after party” from 11:30
p.m. to 1 a.m. Also, TV Guide repeats its Oscar-day coverage from
9:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.

– Host: Seth MacFarlane.

– Musical performers: Adele, Barbra
Streisand, Norah Jones and more, including tributes.

– James Bond tribute: Celebrates the
50^th anniversary of Bond movies. Shirley Bassey – who
sang the themes for “Goldfinger,” “Moonraker” and “Diamonds
Are Forever” – will perform; other elements – possibly a
reunion of the Bonds – have been kept secret.

– Musicals tribute. Marking the
comeback of movie musicals in the 2000s, it will include Jennifer
Hudson from “Dreamgirls,” Catherine Zeta-Jones from “Chicago”
and most of the “Les Miserables” cast, led by Hugh Jackman,
Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway.

– Also, lots of presenters, plus some
people who may be in short sketches – Daniel Radcliffe, Channing
Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Charlize Theron.

– And finally: Continuing an idea
launched by Neil Patrick Harris at the Tonys, MacFarlane will sing a
closing number, possibly commenting on what happened; he'll be joined
by Kristin Chenoweth.

The two previous blogs look at the Oscar ceremony Sunday (Feb. 23) and the search for a front-runner. Now here's a list of key nominee, plus a few stray comments:

By MIKE HUGHES

Lot of awards will zip across our TV
screen Sunday. Here are the nominees in key Academy Award categories,
plus random comments in some of them:

– Best picture: “Lincoln,”
“Argo,” “Les Miserables” “Django Unchained,” “Life of
Pi,” “Silver Dollar Playbook,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Beasts
of the Southern Wild, “ “Amour.”

Comment: “Lincoln” has the look and
feel of an Oscar-winner, but others – especially “Argo” or
“Zero Dark Thirty” – could pull an upset.

– Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”;
Denzel Washington, “Flight”; Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings
Playbook”; Hugh Jackman, “Les Miserables,” Joaquin Phoenix,
“The Master.”

Comment: Day-Lewis has been grabbing
all the awards so far.

– Actress: Jessica Chastain, “Zero
Dark Thirty”; Jennifer Lawrence,” Silver Linings Playbook”;
Naomi Watts, “The Impossible”; Emmanuelle Riva, “Amour”;
Quvenzhane Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

Comment: Those last two are the oldest
and youngest best-actress nominees in Academy Award history. Wallis
is 9; Riva was born in the same years as the Oscars and turns 86 on
the day of the ceremony. It would be dramatic if one of them won, but
Chastain is the front-runner.

– Supporting actor: Robert De Niro,
“Silver Linings Playbook”; Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”; Alan
Arkin, “Argo,” Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master”;
Christopher Waltz, “Django Unchained.”

Comment: Each of the five already has
an Oscar. “Breath of fresh air in that category,” Seth
MacFarlane, who will host the ceremony, dead-panned.

– Supporting actress: Sally Field,
“Lincoln”; Anne Hathaway, “Les Miserables”; Helen Hunt, “The
Sessions”; Amy Adams, “The Master”; Jacki Weaver, “Silver
Linings Playbook.”

Comment: Field could win her third
Oscar. Still, it's hard to compete with the emotion Hathaway stirred
while singing her solo.

– Director: Steven Spielberg,
“Lincoln”; Ang Lee, “Life of Pi,” “David O. Russell,
“Silver Linings Playbook”; Michael Haneke, “Amour”; Behn
Zeitlin, “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

Comment: The big surprise here is that
there's no nomination for Ben Affleck – who won the Golden Globe
for directing “Argo” – or for the directors of “Les
Miserables: or ““Zero Dark Thirty.” That opens up the field for
Spielberg.

– Foreign-language film: “Amour,”
“A Royal Affair,” “No,” “Kon-Tiki,” “War Witch.”

Comment: “Amour” has swept the
foreign-language awards, but we'll offer a dissenting view: Most
mainstream viewers would be very disappointed with it; by comparison,
“Royal Affair,” a sweeping historical piece, would become popular
if people gave it a shot.

– And more:

– Animated feature: “Brave,”
“Wreck-It Ralph,” “ParaNorman,” “Frankenweenie,” “The
Pirates! Band of Misfits.”

– Song: “Suddenly,” from “Les
Miserables”; “Skyfall,” from “Skyfall”; “Pi's Lullably,”
from “Life of Pi,” “Everybody Needs a Best Friend,” from
“Ted”; “Before My Time,” from “Chasing Ice.”

– Original script: “Django
Unchained,” “Flight,” “Moonrise Kingdom,” “Amour,”
“Zero DarkThirty.”

– Adapted script: “Lincoln,”
“Argo,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Life of Pi,” “Beasts
of the Southern Wild.”