News and Quick Comments

News and Quick Comments

Sad sign of the times: “Equalizer” cancelled

The too-short lifespan of “The Equalizer” (shown here) says a lot about current TV.
Here was one of the heroes of the pandemic. When TV was at its low point, it leaped to No. 2 in the ratings.
Now, after a modest five seasons, it’s been canceled. The season-finale (10 p.m. Sunday, May 4, on CBS) has also become the series-finale.
“Equalizer” had exactly two flaws: It’s expensive and it’s from the wrong company. TV is like that these days. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 3, 2025
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ABC’s summer: games, flirting, but no “Bachelorette”

After pausing for a sports-stuffed June, ABC will start its summer line-up in July.
It will be a trimmed-down one, though, with no “Bachelorette.”
Instead, there will be two nights of game shows — including Martin Short hosting a “Match Game” revival — plus “Bachelor in Paradise” (shown here in a previous season). There will also be lots of room for reruns, plus Disney movies on Sundays. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 2, 2025
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Tiny Pac-12 (Pac-2?) has big TV deal

America’s smallest sports conference will again have a big-time TV deal.
The Pac-12 currently has, despite its name, two teams. (They’re shown here.) But a deal with the CW network will put nine football games on national TV this fall.
That will hold things for a year, until the Pac-12 adds six teams, nudging it to two-thirds of its name. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 29, 2025
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Farewell to a good show … and a once-great show

“The Conners” (shown here) says farewell Wednesday (April 23), ending a journey that’s been long, bumpy and sometimes wonderful.
A good show in its final years, a great one in its early years, it’s a key piece of TV history.
When this started (as “Roseanne”) in 1988, TV comedies had seemed unaware of blue-collar America. Sure, there was Jackie Gleason in “Honeymooners” and (briefly) “Life of Riley,” but not much else.
Then Roseanne Barr’s show rippled with blue-collar life. The fictional Roseanne and Dan (John Goodman) were getting by, through changes in jobs and in life. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 21, 2025
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Biblical stories in movies, music and more

TV is ready for its Easter splurge.
That started April 12, with Moses on the mountain top; it concludes eight days later with an Easter Day surge of movies, music (including Handel’s “Messiah”) and more. In between, it has dramas (shown here is “The Chosen”) and even a stage musical.
Some of this is fueled by the era when audiences (and movie studios) savored Biblical epics. During the 1950s, four of the annual box-office champions were Biblical. All of them will be rerun this year — “Quo Vadis,” “The Ten Commandments” and “Ben-Hur” (each an Oscar-nominee for best picture) plus “The Robe.”) Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 10, 2025
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Acorn adds three continents of crimesolving

The Acorn streamer – specializing in British-type mysteries – has a busy stretch of shows and news.
For now, it has three movie-length episodes of “The Chelsea Detective” (shown here in a previous season). After that are six episodes of the long-running “Brokenwood Mysteries.”
And further away? Acorn has signed Brooke Shields for a series that – in a break from Acorn tradition –will be set in the U.S. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 7, 2025
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PBS’ Broadway series: from Dylan to Cole Porter

Two Midwestern songwriters who seem worlds apart – Bob Dylan and Cole Porter – will be featured this May, in PBS’ annual Broadway series.
Porter grew up on an Indiana farm; his “Kiss Me Kate” concludes the series May 30. A week earlier is the “Girl From the North Country,” with 20 songs from Dylan, who grew up in small-town Minnesota.
In their original versions, both shows drew Tony nominations for best musical; so did “Next to Normal” (shown here in its Broadway production), which opens the series. (“Kiss Me Kate” won, back in 1949; the others didn’t.)
They’re joined by the lone play in this group, “Yellow Face.” The shows, each at 9 p.m. on “Great Performances,” are: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 24, 2025