Stories

TV celebrates (often) Broadway’s comeback

Standing before a jubilant crowd in Central Park, actress Susan Kelechi Watson noted the occasion. This marked “the return of live theater to New York City,” she said
It was clearly overdue, a colleague added. “It’s been a long year-and-a-half, you-all.”
That was last August, at the start of “Merry Wives.” Now the show is one of several reaching TV, as part of theater’s post-pandemic comeback. There’s:
— A jubilant “Anything Goes,” at 9 p.m. Friday (May 13) on PBS. It opened in London last July 23 (two months before Broadway returned), with its official opening Aug. 4. Sutton Foster (shown here) and director Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 9, 2022

Stories

Cable’s summer borrows from HBO Max

The wall between pay-TV and cable will lower slightly this summer.
Two shows that have already streamed will have weekly runs on basic cable. “Titans” (shown here) starts July 5 on TNT, with “Love Life” July 31 on TBS; both promise “limited commercial interruptions.”
For “Titans” – based on the “Teen Titans” comics — it’s the third stop in a journey through the Warner Brothers world. The first two seasons were on DC Universe, a streaming service that produced six scripted series before folding … its third was on HBO Max, where the fourth is also expected … and now its second slides to TNT.“Love Life” has had a simpler route – two seasons, with different characters in each, on HBO Max. The first season reran on TBS last August; now the second is part of the summer “tNets” plan: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 6, 2022

Stories

Crow: Fame took a while … then consumed her life

Fame reached Sheryl Crow (shown here) at its own odd pace. It was slow and gradual … and then came in one big whoosh.
“There is no handbook for becoming famous when you’re a really private, small-town person,” she told the Television Critics Association. “It was emotional; it was exhausting.”
She’s still sorting it out in “Sheryl,” an involving documentary that debuts at 9 p.m. Friday (May 6) on Showtime. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 2, 2022

Stories

His wife controls his life (or death)

Life is different, Stephen McGann has found, when you’re married to an in-demand TV writer.
Books keep arriving, in hopes that Heidi Thomas will adapt them. They form “the growing mountain of night-time reading we stack by our bedside,” McGann wrote in “Call the Midwife: A Labour of Love” (2022, Neal Street Productions).
Thomas reads fast and discards quickly. But a dozen years ago, she announced: “You know, I think I might be able to do something with this.”
The result is “Call the Midwife” (shown here with McGann and Max Mcmillan, who plays his son),now at a key point: Previous episodes are at www.pbs.org and the 11th-season finale is at 8 p.m. Sunday (May 8) on PBS: Last week, a crash left three people on a train, near death — Sister Julienne and a former patient … and Dr. Turner, played by McGann. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 1, 2022

Stories

It’s a world filled with hard-trying teens

Donna Schmidt realized she was in an alternate universe.
Her daughter Rachel went to Lowell, the high-achievers’ San Francisco high school that’s now featured in a compelling PBS documentary (shown here). Everything was sort of backwards.
In other schools, kids might toss their books in a corner for the weekend and focus on leisure. Not Rachel or her classmates.
“Friday, when she gets home, she would start studying,” Schmidt told the Television Critics Association, in a press conference for “Try Harder!” (10 p.m. Monday, May 2, on PBS, under the “Independent Lens” banner). “That was just the weirdest thing …. So that’s (my) Friday, too.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 27, 2022

Stories

She finds humor in illness and in home-shopping TV

Vanessa Bayer manages to see the bright side of things – including childhood leukemia.
“I was able to get a lot of perks from it,” she told the Television Critics Association. Indirectly, that led to “I Love That For You,” at 8:30 p.m. Sundays on Showtime, starting May 1.
Bayer (shown here) plays a cancer survivor, stretching for her dream job, at a home-shopping network. In real life, her dream job (seven years on “Saturday Night Live”) came after survival.
“I had leukemia when I was 15,” she said. She’s fine now … and she’s mastered the art of making the best of something. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 26, 2022

Stories

Paramount gets another “Godfather” boost

Back in 1972, Paramount Pictures was wobbling.
It had made three big-budget musicals, but not the good ones … and three Neil Simon comedies, but not the funny ones … and some youth-oriented films, but not the famous ones. It had scored with “Love Story,” flopped with others and needed a break; it got it with “The Godfather.”
And a half-century later? The Paramount+ streaming service and cable’s Paramount Network have had modest starts. One solution – again – is “The Godfather.” On Thursday, Paramount+ starts “The Offer” (shown here) a 10-part mini-series about the making of the film; that weekend, the cable network has both the film and its sequel – 7 and 11 p.m. Saturday, 4 and 7:45 p.m. Sunday
“I watched (‘The Godfather’) before I was a teenager and it deeply affected me,” Juno Temple, one of the “Offer” stars, told the Television Critics Association. “I have such a romanticism of Hollywood’s past.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 25, 2022

Stories

He fell into (sort of) the ultimate role

This is the sort of role actors might dream of.
It’s a guy who knows nothing … then, gradually, knows everything. He’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” in a series (shown here) debuting at 10 p.m. Sunday (April 24) on Showtime. And he’s also a master mimic.
“One of the things that was really exciting … is just the variety of it,” said Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays him. It was a giant challenge, for a guy who could have chosen a different life.
In her comedy act, Gina Yashere (the “Bob Hearts Abishola” co-creator and co-star) used to say: “In a Nigerian family, there are only four choices of jobs – doctor, lawyer, engineer, disgrace to the family.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 20, 2022

Stories

Basketball added a Magic touch

As the 1980s began, Los Angles had a surplus of flash and fury.
There was movie magic, music magic and … well, regular magic. What was missing was something on the sports side; then Earvin “Magic” Johnson (shown here) joined the Los Angeles Lakers.
The result? Four decades later, “he’s still the most popular athlete in Los Angeles,” Jimmy Kimmel says in “They Call Me Magic,” the four-part documentary that debuts Friday (April 22) on Apple TV+.
Others in the film have their own adjectives. Johnson is “mythological” (Samuel L. Jackson) … His passes “make it seem like he’s clairvoyant” (Kareem Abdul-Jabar) … “He was an oxymoron; he could play any position” (former Laker Coach Pat Riley) … And “he played with such joy” (Grant Hill). Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 19, 2022

Stories

Earth Day? It will be big on our TV screens

The first Earth Day of the Covid years brought a bright-eyed, bright-skies novelty. In Northern India, for instance, people were delighted; for the first time, they could see the Himalayas.
The second pandemic Earth Day even brought a film about slowed-down world: “The Year the Earth Changed” saw nature rebounding vibrantly.
Now comes the third one (shown here with climber Alex Honnold on Disney+). Filmmaking has been difficult, but there’s still a big, ambitious line-up — see separate list under “news and quick comments” — on PBS and the streaming channels. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 18, 2022