Stories

Reynolds: a Northerner who became the South’s hero

As his career soared, Burt Reynolds created a new niche.
“He was a hero to the South,” director Adam Rifkin says in “I Am Burt Reynolds,” which airs at 8 p.m. ET Saturday (Dec. 30) on CW, launching a series of biographical movies. He was the perfect “sweaty, stout tough guy.”
It’s a regional-rogue image he molded through three “Smokey and the Bandit” films (shown here) and others, from “Gator” to “The Longest Yard” and “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.” And it persisted despite a quirk: Reynolds was a native Northerner who didn’t move South (to Florida) until he was 10. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 27, 2023

Stories

Cryer’s back in his lane, playing a divorced dad

By now, Jon Cryer should be expert on divorce, with all its potential for comedy or drama.
Like many people, he’s a child of divorce and an adult who divorced. Unlike most, he has a mother who wrote a musical partly about divorce. Also, he spent a dozen years playing a divorced dad on CBS.
Now he’s back and in full comedy mode. “Extended Family” (shown here) debuts at about 8 p.m. Saturday (Dec. 23), after football, on NBC, becoming the first show in TV’s staggered, post-strike comeback..That opener reruns at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, with new episodes starting a week later.
This is a tale of a modern-day, amicable splits. Jim (Cryer, right) and Julia (Abigail Spencer) alternate weeks at their home, allowing their daughter and son to stay put. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 20, 2023

Stories

Yes, TV (sometimes) has religion at Christmastime

Somewhere beyond all the elves and snowmen and differently-nosed reindeer, TV occasionally remembers the serious side of Christmas.
That seems to be on the upswing lately, partly because of “The Chosen” (shown here), the crowdfunded series about Jesus. Originally planned to simply be online, it found audiences on several cable channels, including Trinity, UPtv and BYU-TV.
Now it’s also had Sunday nights on CW … where it will wrap its current run (three seasons, with four more planned) on Christmas Eve. The same producer will have a two-hour music-and-monologue special Dec. 23 on CW … and a similar special will be Christmas Eve on Great American Family. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 19, 2023

Stories

New worlds? Percy is ready for them; so is Walker

The notion might seem overwhelming: A regular lad is whisked away to a special place, where he must do big things.
That happened to Harry Potter … And to Percy Jackson, the centerpiece of an epic series that starts Wednesday (Dec. 20) on Disney+ … And, sort of, to the actors playing them.
To Walker Scobell (shown here), who stars as Percy, such changes are a natural part of life. He grew up in a military family, accustomed to new schools and new lives.
“I think that helped with being an actor in general,” he said at a virtual press conference. “My dad is so used to moving a lot and our whole family is. So it wasn’t a big change.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 15, 2023

Stories

British custom — Christmas Day TV — reaches U.S.

A British custom – TV episodes planned for Christmas Day – is making modest inroads in the U.S.
The big one this year is a “Doctor Who,” introducing a new Doctor and his companion (the stgars are shown here). It marks the show’s move to Disney+.
In addition, however, there are two others arriving exactly on Dec. 25 (PBS’ “Call the Midwife” and Acorn’s “Madame Blanc Mysteries”), two that come a day earlier (Britbox’s “Lot 249” ghost story and its “Beyond Paradise”) and some others from earlier in the month. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 13, 2023

News and Quick Comments Stories

When does the real season start? Soon … or not

(This is an updated version, adding several CW shows)
After waiting semi-patiently for three months, TV viewers have a logical question:
Now that the strikes have ended, when will the real season start? The answer varies; it will be:
— Quite soon. Two comedies (one is shown here) arrive Dec. 23; 11 more shows arrive in the first week of January.
— Really late. Another 12 shows – led by the eternal “Grey’s Anatomy” – wait until March.
— Or somewhere in between. You could think of the Super Bowl, on Feb. 11, as the turning point. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 10, 2023

Stories

Lear’s great life had Bunker-ish roots

Hovering over Norman Lear’s life was one indomitable force.
That was his father. “I loved him, but I didn’t always like him,” Lear (shown here), who died Tuesday at 101, once told reporters.
Hyman “Herman” Lear “was going to make and have a million dollars in 10 days to two weeks, all his life,” Lear told the Television Critics Association in 2016. “And, of course, he didn’t come close.”
And then his son surpassed any such dreams. He became “a television hero,” said Michael Kanto, said in 2016, the year he produced an “American Masters” profile of Lear that many PBS stations will rerun at 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8. Lear’swho produced a PBS profile of Lear that year. Lear’s success could be measured in: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 6, 2023

Stories

Too much Christmas? Not by these standards

Sure, we might wonder if TV overdoes the holidays.
Two channels had new Christmas movies in October. Others jumped in as soon as the Thanksgiving Day parade ended. A week later, another proclaimed the “25 days of Christmas.”
But in some parts of the world, that would be restraint. In the Philippines, Lea Salonga said in a virtual press conference, “the Christmas season actually starts in September.”
Now she stars in “Christmas With the Tabernacle Choir,” at 8 p.m. Dec. 12 on PBS and at 8 p.m. ET Dec. 17 on BYU-TV. “I told my brother about it,” she said, “and he was like, ‘Oh my, that’s huge!’” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 3, 2023

Stories

“Napoleon” and others hit likability limits

For American audiences, there’s one clear deal-breaker.
We’ll accept antiheroes. We’ll let them rob banks, sell drugs, run gangs, spout biases, cheat on spouses. BUT they must be likable.
That comes to mind now, while pondering two current movies – “Napoleon” (shown here) and “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Here are epics, now in theaters (where they belong) before reaching Apple TV+. Each is by a master filmmaker, Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese; each is oddly hard to like.
It also pops up while watching the original, British version of “Ghosts,” at 9 and 9:30 p.m. Thursdays on CBS. This is just like the American adaptation … except the characters are much less likable. That factor has been crucial, especially on TV: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 1, 2023

Stories

“Prince of Egypt” musical: songs from the summit

Maybe this is where all songs should be created – atop Mount Sinai, viewing miles of expanse and centuries of human history.
That’s where “When You Believe” began. It would become a global hit (having Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey helped); so would the movie it was written for, “The Prince of Egypt.”
Now, 25 years later, the story and songs are back in a new form: “The Prince of Egypt: The Musical”(shown here) was filmed live in London; it’s available Dec. 5, via Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
This was “written a long time ago, from a story thousands of years ago,” songwriter Stephen Schwartz said. It’s also disturbingly current – clashes in the Holy Land, pitting neighbors against each other. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 27, 2023