Stories

Stories

It’s a miracle: Dark Ages are funny

PASADENA, Cal. – So you go to the Ivy League, where your parents spend approximately a zillion dollars.
Then … well, you write comedy. Will you ever use that education?
Sort of. Just ask Simon Rich, whose “Miracle Workers: Dark Ages” (shown here, with Daniel Radcliffe) is a new cable comedy.
“I did study Medieval history at Harvard,” he said. “And I live in fear that (my professors are) going to somehow get access to a television and watch this.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 18, 2020
Stories

Laurie’s out in space and back in comedy

PASADENA, Cal. – Hugh Laurie is back to the world he once mastered – comedy that’s dark and droll and odd and … well, very British. Also, very funny.
“That’s where my heart will always be,” Laurie said.
He’s been other things lately – from a crabby doctor to a nasty arms dealer – but comedy was first. Now “Avenue 5” – an HBO show from the “Veep” creator – returns him there. “It brought back for me … the thrill, but also the fear of trying to do something funny,” Laurie said. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 16, 2020
Stories

LA cops get a two-headed makeover

PASADENA, Cal. – Television seems determined to give Los Angeles law enforcement a makeover.
Two series – both scheduled for Thursdays, a month apart – put offbeat people in charge.
First was Fox’s “Deputy,” which arrived at 9 p.m. on Jan. 2. Stephen Dorff is Bill Hollister, a cowboy type, suddenly named Los Angeles County Sheriff.
Next is CBS’ “Tommy” (10 p.m. Feb. 6). Edie Falco (shown here) is Abigail Thomas, the city’s new police chief.
Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 13, 2020
Stories

“This Is Us” is back and “sideways”

PASADENA, Cal. – “This Is Us” is finally back from its long holiday nap.
And it expects to start out by jolting viewers … again. “This is about to kind of go a little sideways,” Sterling K. Brown(shown here)  told the Television Critics Association this weekend
The show returns at 9 p.m. Tuesday (Jan. 14) on NBC, with what producer Dan Fogelman calls “a really special episode directed by … Yasu Tanida, who’s been our (cinematographer) for the entire run of the series. He’s a talented and beautiful guy.”
This follows a two-month break, following a Nov. 19 episode that gave viewers plenty to worry about. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 13, 2020
Stories

FX prepares its big Hulu push

PASADENA, Cal. – John Landgraf will quickly admit there are too many TV shows.
As head of the FX cable networks, he has his staff count them. “There were 532 scripted (series and mini-series) last year,” he told the Television Critics Association. “That’s a 7 percent gain vs. 2018. And given that the streaming wars are now at hand, we expect (it) will increase.”
So what FX is doing now is … well, adding several new shows and a new streaming service.
Or, actually, a new hub on an existing streamer. “FX on Hulu” debuts March 2; it will soon have two mini-series (“Mrs. America,” shown here, and “Devs”) that are only on Hulu, plus shows on both FX and Hulu. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 11, 2020
Stories

“Jeopardy” giants: smart and silly

PASADENA, Cal. – These are the “Jeopardy” giants, the guys bringing new life to an old game.
They are the three all-time top winners, locked in a primetime competition, plus host Alex Trebek. They bring smarts, strategy … and silliness. “I love silliness,” Trebek insists.
Brad Rutter (shown at right) – battling Ken Jennings (center) and James Holzhauer (left) in the ABC tournament – recalls the time he and two other contestants whimsically decided to stand behind the podium without their pants.
“We all had a good laugh,” Rutter said. “And then (announcer) Johnny Gilbert said, ‘And now the host of “Jeopardy,” Alex Trebek.’ And Alex came out with no pants on.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 9, 2020
Stories

ABC turns “Thirtysomething” again

(This is an expanded version of a story I posted earlier today)
PASADENA, Cal. – “Thirtysomething” is heading back to ABC, at the age of … well, thirtysomething.
The show started 32 years ago and ended four years later, with a pile of awards and a niche in society. It was “so embedded in popular culture that its title was entered into the dictionary,” said Karey Burke, who is president of ABC Entertainment.
So now she may be bringing it back. The deal finances a pilot film and setting up a writers’ room for a possible Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 8, 2020
Stories

Austen’s tale is completed … 200 years later

Let’s credit Andrew Davies for consummate patience.
He’s the master adapter, an expert on turning British classics – especially ones by Jane Austen – into TV scripts. But he waited 80-plus years for the ultimate challenge.
That’s “Sanditon” (shown here with Rose Williams and Theo James), which Austen had barely started. “She didn’t really get any further than introducing the characters and the premise. (All of) Jane Austen’s material, I used up in the first half of the first episode,” Davies, 83, told the Television Critics Association in July. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 4, 2020
Stories

McCarthy: A brash bully demanded attention

It was six decades ago … but in some ways, it seems like now.
There was name-calling, finger-pointing, fact-checking, a televised congressional hearing. There was talk of State Department evil. This was the Sen. Joseph McCarthy era; a PBS documentary takes a fresh look … and dispels some assumptions.
The wrong notion, historian David Oshinsky told the Television Critics Association in July, is that McCarthy was a “slightly moronic, animalistic person. (Instead,) this was one very shrewd politician.
”That comes across in the film. McCarthy is described as affable, talkative, easy to like. “In some ways, he was quite a charming guy,” says Leon Kamin, one of the people McCarthy attacked. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 2, 2020
Stories

Film savors Ronstadt, who “could sing anything”

At first, the music world wasn’t sure what to do with Linda Ronstadt.
Was she folk? … Or country? … Or rock?
Then people realized she was all of that and more – from 1940s pop to Spanish-language ballads to operettas. “Linda could literally sing anything,” Dolly Parton says in a documentary.
Now that film – fascinating and well-crafted – reaches CNN … which is where it started. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 28, 2019