Stories

Adam Reed (one of them) molds a Christmas cartoon

A logical mind might expect that all Adam Reeds are the same.
Or, at least, that all Adam Reeds who make animated TV shows are the same.
Not so. One such Adam Reed makes “Archer,” which is a popular Emmy-winner … and ripples with cynicism. The other is the creative force behind “Reindeer in Here” (shown here), which debuts at 9 p.m. Tuesday (Nov. 29) on CBS, with abundant optimism.
“I couldn’t find a positive Christmas” book, the latter Reed said. He was particularly down on “Elf on the Shelf,” which he has called “creepy.” So he wrote a thoroughly non-creepy, non-cynical book. The basic notion, Reed said, is that “every child, at some point, feels different.” In this case, it’s a boy who has moved a lot and feels alone. Read more…

Chippendales: big biceps, big profits, big scandal

The Chippendales world began modestly enough, 43 years ago. A failing night club tried some strip shows using male dancers.
Then things soared in odd ways. There were huge crowds, big profits, creative differences … and investigations for murder and arson and more.
That’s already been the subject of movies, books and, last year, a four-part Discovery+ documentary. Now there’s the “Welcome to Chippendales” mini-serie (shown here), on Hulu. The third episode is Nov. 29, with the others on the next five Tuesdays.
This is a true story, peppered with odd details. “It has this glossy, kind of campy overlay, because it’s the Chippendale dancers,” said, Annale Ashford, who co-stars. “And then underneath that, there’s the belly of everything that was happening socially.” Read more…

He’s well-rested, after a 30-year pause

In acting terms, let’s think of this as a long pause – a 30-year one, actually,.
In 1992, Danny Pintauro finished his eight-year run on “Who’s the Boss?” He had done the show for half his life; he’d also done movies and a soap opera. It was time for a break, including college.
Then the break got longer. When Lifetime’s “A Country Christmas Harmony”(shown here with Pintauro and Brooke Elliott) arrives at 8 p.m. Friday (Nov. 18), it will be the first time most viewers have seen him acting in three decades.
In the interim, he said, he faced “the trauma of being a child actor” and “of being outed so early.”He was addicted to meth and tested positive for HIV. Read more…

It’s a guy in the Rocky-Rambo-“Yellowstone” mode

Two kindred spirits, a generation apart, have merged in the macho-man TV world. There’s:
— Sylvester Stallone, 76. He created John Rambo and Rocky Balboa, 40 and 46 years ago.
— Taylor Sheridan, about 52. Four years ago, he created John Dutton and “Yellowstone.”
Now they’ve combined for “Tulsa King,” which has a two-part arrival: On Sunday (Nov. 13), it debuts on the Paramount+ streamer; a week later, its first two episodes will be on cable – 9 and 10 p.m. Nov. 20, right after “Yellowstone,” on the Paramount Network. “We’re both steeped in the alpha tradition where, you know, life is hard,” Stallone told the Television Critics Associatioon. Read more…

Mid-season brings a flood of debuts and season-openers

So now we know what we might be doing during a long, cold winter.
We can stare at our TV sets, catching lots of shows that are new or semi-new or, at least, re-arranged.
This week, ABC, NBC and Fox announced their mid-season plans. Combined, in January and February they’ll have five new drama series (two of them about missing-persons units), three new comedies (including “Not Dead Yet,” shown here with Gina Rodriguez), three new reality shows and about a dozen season-openers, plus some shows changing nights. Read more…

A tenacious writer-singer-actress breaks through

Sasha Clayton and Nicole Lecky have a lot in common, actually.
Both are blessed with beauty and musical talent. But both grew up in London’s hard-scrabble East End, with no easy way to get into show business.
From there, they diverge wildly. Sasha is fictional, the central character in “Mood,” a six-part mini-series (with music) on AMC+ and BBC America. In the opener (10 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6), she lashes out fiercely at … well, everyone; her world implodes.
And Lecky (shown here) is real. She stars, sings, wrote the scripts, overcame the things that shattered Sasha. “It was a mixture of, I guess, talent and tenacity,” she told the Television Critics Association. Read more…

Successful TV co-star? It’s a mixed pleasure

Here are some moments in the life of a successful TV actor. Jim Hoffmaster (shown here) was:
1) Visiting his high school alma mater in Durand, Mich., when a young woman rushed in, grinning. She was meeting the guy who played Kermit on “Shameless” – “my favorite character on my favorite show.” Later, he was cheered at a street fair in Lansing, Mich.; it was, he said, “the closest I’ve ever been to being mobbed.”
2) Back home in Los Angeles, in his crowded studio apartment. No, he doesn’t have elegant dinner parties there. In fact, he never has guests … and he sometimes eats soup straight from the can.
Those scenes are in “Acting Like Nothing is Wrong,” a documentary now reaching film festivals (including the East Lansing Film Festival on Nov. 10). The contrasts — a vivid view of the life of a supporting actor — will surprise viewers … as they surprised the filmmaker. “He warned me what his apartment was like,” Jane Rosemont said, “but it was still a bit of a shock.” Read more…

Lopez rift was patched via TikTok and TV

Here’s a fresh approach to daddy-daughter problems:
He had too much alcohol and too many absences. She avoided him. “The only way these two were going to heal their relationship was on the set of their own NBC sitcom,” Debby Wolfe said.
Now that show is here. “Lopez vs. Lopez” (shown here) debuts at 8 p.m. Friday (Nov. 4) on NBC; Wolfe created it, with George and Mayan Lopez playing versions of themselves that are exaggerated – a little.
“There was a time when we didn’t speak and were estranged for about three years,” Mayan told the Television Critics Association. That split, George said, “was so painful and so much my fault.” Read more…

Jordan brought a new version of TV stardom

When Leslie Jordan first got there, Hollywood knew what a star should look like.
That was 40 years ago, when TV was dominated by Tom Selleck and Selleck types. A star would be 6-foot-4, handsome, a lades man, with a Midwestern-type voice.
And Jordan (shown here), who died Monday (Oct. 24), was the exact opposite. He was 4-foot-11, gay, with an impish charm and a pronounced Tennessee accent.
“I realized that my job was the funny guy that comes in with the zingers,” he told the Television Critics Association in 2018. Read more…