Stories

A smart Smart shows finds new crises

Amid the swirling complications of “Hacks,” there’s a familiar theme.
“Be careful what you wish for,” Jean Smart said.
In the fourth season (starting Thursday, April 10, on Max), Deborah Vance (Smart) has her wish – a latenight talk show. It’s he dream of many comedians, except ….
Joan Rivers – the real-life person sometimes compared to the fictional Deborah – did get her own talk show. It failed and her life sagged.
That might not happen on “Hacks,” but things won’t be easy. “It’s the pressure,” Smart said. It “gets to her.”
Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 3, 2025

Stories

Pax made a grand, failed bid to be No. 7

(This is the latest chapter in the book-in-progress, “Television, and How It Got That Way.” The full book, so far, is in “News and Quick Comments”; there, this is Chapter 11, concluding a section on the search for a fourth network and beyond.)

If someone had held a gathering of TV moguls (not a good idea), we would have noticed Bud Paxson instantly.
He stood 6-foot-7. He had a downhome manner and was fond of carnival barkers. And he skipped any of the TV-executive notions of surveys and screenings and such.
He simply leapt ahead. Taking the zillions he’d made from home-shopping, he bought TV stations, bought reruns, had some new shows (include “Sue Thomas, F.B. Eye,” shown here) and created an entire network in his name.
Well, half his name. This was “Pax Net”; it persisted for seven years. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 2, 2025

Stories

Time for love, laughs, friendship and orgasms

.At an acting class, two opposites collided.
Molly Kochan “was kind of a wallflower,” said Nikki Boyer, who wasn’t.
“She had long, brown hair. We were in an acting class and she couldn’t stand me…. She was very quiet and to herself and she didn’t like my energy.”
Naturally, one of the great friendships was forming. It survived through Molly’s stage-four cancer diagnosis, through her end-of-life sexual odyssey and through their podcast, “Dying For Sex.”
Now that’s been turned into a mini-series (shown here) that arrives in one lump (eight half-hours) on Friday, April 4. Many people will find it compelling, especially with the riveting work of Michelle Williams as the late Molly and Jenny Slate as Nikki. Some will find it off-putting, because of its sexual kinkiness. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 2, 2025

Stories

PBS music? It’s funky, country, classical and beyond

It’s time to catch PBS’ favorite kind of music. Which, of course, is classical.
Or maybe it’s funk (shown here with James Brown) Or country or Latin. Or blues or ballads or bluegrass or Broadway.
All of that shows up soon on PBS, which is also the birthplace of “Rubber Ducky” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
There are times (usually federal-budget times) when people peg PBS into one category. In truth, it strains to be everything – from kids to antique, from dramas to nature. And it’s music tastes reflect those extremes.
There have been two film biographies — on radiant cellist Jacqueline du Pre (March 28) and Broadway’s Liza Minnelli (April 1). Coming up: A wide-ranging “Austin City Limits” special (April 4), “We Want the Funk” (April 8), Chopin (April 11) and more, including jazz and Broadway musicals. Let’s look at some upcoming ones: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 1, 2025

Stories

WB and UPN: It was a race to be No. 5

(This is the latest chapter of the book-in-progress, “TV, and How It Got That Way.” To read the overall book, in order, scroll down under “News and Quick Comments.” There, this is the 10th chapter of 12, so far.)

For decades, few people tried to create a fourth network. Then, oddly, everyone wanted to be No. 5.
There was WB and UPN and Pax – each grasping for a small slice of the audience. It was a race to the bottom that, oddly, everyone lost.
Well, not everyone. Viewers won. These mini-networks gave us Buffy (shown here) and Felicity and Dawson and the Gilmore girls, plus two “Star Trek” series, “Everybody Hates Chris” and Jane the pregnant virgin.
They brought variety to a sometimes-bland TV world. Then they crumbled. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 30, 2025

Stories

They’re back: Bart, Georgie, Elsbeth and more

When TV shows take a break, our reactions vary.
Some shows are gone for a couple years and we barely shrug; others are gone for a couple weeks and we feel cheated.
Now things are getting better: Fox’s “The Simpsons” returns Sunday (March 30), after a six-week break; CBS’ Thursday and Friday shows return April 3-4 (starting with “Georgie & Mandy,” shown here), after a two-week break that seemed approximately forever. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 29, 2025

Stories

She likes jobs … so she juggled three of them

After 35 years on the job, some people might get a gold watch, a dinner or maybe a fishing pole. Heather Tom got extra work.
That’s fine with her, she said. “I don’t like not working.”
Brad Bell, the producer of “The Bold and the Beautiful,” was aware of that. “This is a celebration of my 35 years of work,” Tom said. “So Brad said, ‘Let’s give you three jobs.’”
She wrote, directed (shown here) and acted in an episode — possibly the first woman to do that in one daytime episode. It airs at 1:30 p.m. Thursday (March 27) on most CBS stations. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 24, 2025

Stories

At last: A fourth network livened the TV world

(This is the latest chapter of a book-in-progress, “Television, and How It Got That Way.” For previous chapters, in chronological order, scroll under “News and Quick Comments.”)

The TV landscape had become littered with fallen fourth networks.
There were failures by big media companies – Paramount (often), Mutual, Metromedia, more — and by a TV manufacturer and a warehouse mogul. Then, surprisingly, Fox made it work. It would eventually give us “The Simpsons” (shown here), “American Idol,” “The X-Files,” “24” and more.
It made mistakes; people usually do, especially in television. But it also had three key things – persistence, originality and an open checkbook.
Especially that checkbook. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 21, 2025

Stories

It’s time for Troy and Drake and all the saints

As the college basketball tournament begins, we can meet varied places.
There’s Kansas, which is a state, and Bryant, which is a Gumbel. There’s Liberty, which is a concept, and Auburn, which is a color. There’s Wofford (shown here) and Lipscomb and McNeese and more.
That’s the egalitarian notion of the NCAA tourney. It has spots for Texas, with 53,000 students, and Wofford, with 1,600. It has Yale, which has provided five American presidents, and others which haven’t even had an Undersecretary of Transportation. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 17, 2025

Stories

Sweet Marie meets a master swindler

We’re about to meet (or re-meet) two vibrant women – one famous, the other oddly obscure.
The first is the title character in “Marie Antoinette,” which starts its second season at 10 p.m. Sunday (March 23) on PBS. Marie (shown here) has a surplus of sweetness and a shortage of frugality.
And the other? Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Remy is another story entirely.
“I had never heard of her” before being cast to play her, Freya Mavor said. Then “I was obsessed. I read everything about her. She was just wild – a wild, wild woman.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 15, 2025